~~Harvey 9 Dec 2014

​Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): Europe’s banks are vulnerable in 2015, due to weak macroeconomic conditions, unfinished regulatory hurdles and the risk of bail-ins according to credit rating agencies. The economic outlook for European banks in 2015 will be hampered by weak profits, risks of bail-ins and litigation charges, Moody’s Investors Service announced Monday. “Weak macroeconomic conditions will continue to weigh on Europe’s banking sector in 2015 and banks’ low overall profitability implies that Europe’s banking sector remains structurally vulnerable,” Moody’s Europe, Middle East and Africa financial institutions group managing director said in a statement. “The European banking industry remains structurally vulnerable,” said Carola Schuler, managing director at Moody’s, in a presentation on the sector’s outlook. The agencies said moves to reduce implied government support for the banking sector and force bank debt holders to participate by coming to the aid of wayward lenders would also put downward pressure on bank ratings. “The European bail-in tool decreases the predictability of state support,” said S&P managing director Stefan Best in a separate presentation on banking prospects. The move by western nations towards bail-in regimes whereby “too big to fail” banks confiscate individual and companies deposits has been put in place with very little public discussion or awareness of the risks and ramifications of bail-ins.

GoldCore on Bail-ins: he debate in Europe continued with admissions and then denials that bail-ins of deposits was the new normal. Then, Ireland’s Finance minister, at a meeting of EU finance ministers in June 2013, let the cat out of the bag when he admitted that “Bail-in is now the rule.” At the Brisbane summit new measures were announced dealing with the capital requirement of around 30 GSIBS, Globally Systemically Important Banks . The announcement was lauded by the bankers as a triumph for the taxpayer. Anthony Browne of the British Bankers Association said, “The banking industry strongly supports this work, which is a really important step in ending ‘too big to fail’ and ensuring that never again will taxpayers have to step in to bail out banks.” The fact that bond holders and depositors of the bank may have to “step in” to bail out the bank was not mentioned and nor were basic questions asked about the risks of bail-ins to savers and companies around the world. Under the new regulations these banks would be required to have 16-25% of their capital on hand as a buffer should another banking crisis arise. What has been generally ignored is that deposits are not sacrosanct in this new arrangement. The most crucial element of this new arrangement is that banks obligations to each other stemming from their activities in the derivatives markets are also prioritised above larger deposits. So far from ending the “too big to fail” paradigm – recent developments appear to have reinforced it. In the U.S., the derivatives market involved financial transactions to the value of a phenomenal $297.5 trillion in March 2013. Deposits at U.S. commercial banks were valued at a mere $9.3 trillion. If bail-ins take place, which now seems almost certain when banks get into difficulty again, there is a very significant risk that bail-ins alone will lead to a collapse in consumer and business confidence as consumers and businesses see their savings and capital confiscated. This alone will likely compound a difficult economic environment and lead to sharp recessions and depressions – economic contagion.

Chris Powell on RT interview of Sir Howard Davis: Davis acknowledges the occasional flaws of central banking and fiat money in regard to credit creation. “At times,” he sais, “given the paper money basis of our economy, maybe we allow credit to expand too rapidly, and essentially the story of the last financial crisis was that. We allowed credit to grow too quickly. But there are ways of dealing with that, through interest rates, bank capital ratios, etc., which can constrain credit growth, and you don’t need the really freezing shower of a gold standard to do that, which would destroy much of the world’s economy.” But can central banks be relied upon to undertake in time the cautionary measures Davis cites, and to do it consistently? Well, maybe someday, in a more virtuous era, they will, and allowing the money supply to be determined by the amount of a particular metal or two that can be dug out of the ground does seem awfully primitive. But were the ancients so primitive in establishing such a metallic money system because they realized that anything more sophisticated requires perfectly mechanical virtue in administration and that, administered by mere mortals, a sophisticated system inevitably goes haywire as a result of human corruptibility? And if today’s central bankers have achieved the supreme expertise and disinterestedness required to administer a sophisticated system, why do they do nearly everything in secret, and why is the world’s wealth constantly being siphoned upward away from the many and into the accounts of the very few?

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a good delivery day, registering 753 notices served for 75,300 oz. Silver Comex registered 5 notices for 25,000 oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.83 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest fell by a small 823 contracts with yesterday’s rise in price of $0.02. Looks like some of the shorts are vacating the arena. For the past year, we have been witnessing massive liquidation of contracts despite the fact that it cost nothing to roll. This makes no sense and it smacks of cash settlements which are totally illegal. Since I have been following Comex data, I have never witnessed such a massive liquidation in both gold and silver. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 146,537 contracts. The big December silver OI contract fell by 29 contracts down to 602 contracts. In gold we had a fall in OI with the rise in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $4.70. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 368,630 for a loss of 1490 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 1935 contracts losing 28 contracts. Today, we gained 2.69 tonnes of gold Inventory at the GLD / inventory rests tonight at 721.81 tonnes. In silver, we had no change in silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 345.223 million oz. Now, all the months of GOFO rates (one, two, three six and 12 month GOFO) moved positive and moved closer to the positive.

Meenakshi Sharma and A. Ananthalakshmi (Reuters): India should allow banks to use gold as part of their liquidity reserves, which would let them make more use of gold inside the country and reduce the need for imports, an industry body said today, seeing that as an alternative to import curbs. The world’s second-biggest consumer of the metal should also consider setting up an exchange for transparent gold pricing and to streamline trade, according to a report commissioned by the World Gold Council.

Chris Powell (GATA): GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk says today that while gold interest rates are an indicator of conditions in the gold market, they too, like the gold price itself, are easily manipulated by central banks and that the zero-interest-rate policy of central banks has created abnormal conditions in all markets.

Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): When the next panic comes, we are now too leveraged systemically for the current system to survive, but I digress. The grand scheme problem as I see it is the “push-pull” effect. The central banks need to push money out and into the system. This would aid the real economy and bolster “asset” prices. Their catch 22 is they cannot make the decision “which” assets are levitated in value because they do not control which direction the money they have pushed will go. Ideally, the money will stay within the box and continue playing with other paper assets. Once the bleed into real assets really gets going, it will be noticed and attract other attention …and into other real assets. They must create more money and more liquidity to keep the paper game going, it is exactly this debt and liquidity creation which will end up making the decision to flee …to safer assets. In the end, the definition of “safer” will be not only what counts but the exact cause of the crisis. The central banks are collectively trying as hard as they can to reflate, if they get their wish they will lose their currencies…pretty simple!

Tyler Durden: It wasn’t just China’s long overdue crash last night. In addition to the Shanghai Composite suffering its biggest plunge since August 2009, there has been a sharp slide in the USDJPY which has broken its uptrend to +∞ (and hyperinflation), and around the time Chinese gamblers were panicking, the FX pair tumbled under 120, although since then the 120 tractor beam has been activated. Elsewhere, the Athens stock exchange is also crashing by over 10% this morning on the heels of news that the Greek government has accelerated the process to elect the next president and possibly, a rerun of the drama from the summer of 2012 when the Eurozone was hanging by a thread when Tsipras almost won the presidential vote and killed the world’s most artificial and insolvent monetary union. And finally, the crude plunge appears to have finally caught up with ground zero, with ADX General Index in Abu Dhabi plunging 3.5%, also poised for the biggest drop since 2009. In fact the only thing that isn’t crashing (at least not this moment), is Brent, which did drop to new 5 year lows earlier under $66, but has since staged a feeble rebound.

Zero Hedge: Unlike the Federal Reserve – which openly encourages speculative wealth creation/redistribution and has never seen an equity bubble it didn’t believe was contained – the PBOC appears, by its actions tonight, to be concerned that things have got a little overheated in its corporate bond and stock markets as hot money ripped into the nation’s capital markets on hints of further easing and QE-lite a few months ago. In a show of force, the PBOC simultaneously fixed CNY significantly stronger (implicit tightening) and enforced considerably stricter collateral rules on short-term loans/repos. With Chinese stocks concentrated is even fewer hands than in the US (and recently fearful of the surge in margin trading), it appears the PBOC is trying to stall the acceleration in as careful a manner as possible. The result, as Bloomberg notes, is a major squeeze in CNY (biggest drop since Dec 2008). Interest-rate swaps ripped higher along with corporate bond yields, and most Chinese stocks sold off (with two down for every one up). Given that more than 1 trillion yuan of outstanding corporate bonds are now deposited at the CSDC, analysts estimate that around 500 billion yuan of the bonds will be excluded from the repo business starting Tuesday, with the yields of credit bonds possibly being pushed up by a few dozens of basis points as their prices fall.

Tyler Durden: Those who have been following the ridiculous moves in the Shanghai Composite in recent months, knew it was only a matter of time before yet another major stock market (one which recently surpassed the Nikkei for the second largest spot in the world) crashed violently, further eroding faith in the centrally-planned “price discovery” process. The only question was when. Following our report last night about China’s change in collateral rules, in which we noted that none other than the PBOC was now eager to pop the equity bubble following the PBOC simultaneously fixing the CNY significantly stronger (implicit tightening) and enforced considerably stricter collateral rules on short-term loans/repos – a move which according to estimates from Shenyin Wanguo Securities, would disqualify some 1.25 trillion yuan in corporate bonds as repo collateral, or 60% of all outstanding corporate bonds listed on China’s two stock exchanges – we were not surprised to see the tumble in the market-traded Yuan (which crashed the most in 6 years), and the surge in interest rate swaps, coupled by the plunge in corporate bonds. The only thing that puzzled us was why, after the correct kneejerk reaction lower in the Shcomp, did stocks proceed to surge even higher.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Zero Hedge: The fall in the yuan caused a collapse of good collateral.
It also caused a collapse of the yen carry trade as the yen rose by 350 basis points. Futures are indicating Japan should open down 700 points tonight.
We thus have multiple problems facing our bankers:
1, Collapse in yen carry trade
2. Collapse in oil derivatives
3. Collapse in Venezuela and Abu Dhabi (oil countries) setting off credit default risks
4. Collapse in the long Nikkei/short gold trade which will have our bankers scurrying around looking for any physical gold they can find.
5. Derivative risks in the collapse of oil itself
6. Disappearance of good collateral as China pierces its equity bubble.

Zero Hedge: As the sun sets in Athens, we thought a moment of reflection was worthwhile. Greek stocks are now down 13% – the biggest single-day drop since (drum roll please) the crash of 1987… led by total carnage in Greek banks (down 15-25% on the day). Greek bond yields exploded, 3YR +183bps to a new post-bailout high at 8.32% (and inverted to 10Y).

Tyler Durden: Just a few short months ago, investors were “buy buy buy”-ing the fact that The Baltic Dry Index had resurged off multi-year lows ‘proving’ China’s renaissance and that world economic growth will re-approach Nirvana. Simply put, with collapsing commodity prices (iron ore for instance) and massive fleets of credit-driven mal-investment-based vessels, it should surprise no one that the shipping index just plunged back below 1000, now at its lowest for this time of year since 2008. Furthermore, the seasonal bounce always seen in Q3 was among the weakest ever. But apart from that, buy stocks…

Steve Quayle Alert: Hello Steve. I am a single mom who swallowed the red pill almost 3 years ago and I am wide awake, Praise to Jesus. Just wanted to confirm some things here in central Kentucky. On Sunday this week, Our local IGA's meat counter had about one quarter of the meat cooler empty. I mean bare bones minimum of everything including hamburger. The steak selection was weak at best and turning in color. It was so noticeable, my 8 year old daughter pointed at it and said, "Look mommy! The meat's all gone." Also, I was shopping the deli department yesterday, Monday, at our local Walmart when I noticed that the area which holds salads and beans to sell by the pound had only small bowls of items but half as many bowls. The shelves have been sparse in some sections as well. They even ran out of powdered sugar at Thanksgiving. I pray for the safety, salvation and deliverance of family and friends as well as you and those who voice the truth. It's only a matter of time now. Peace!!!! Cheryl

Susan Duclos (AllNewsPipeline): Russian President Vladimir Putin is issuing a warning, one Americans need to pay attention to before US politicians take us past the point of no return, if they haven't done so already. While the media in Russia is "state-run," meaning that one never knows how much is true or how much is propaganda, the flip side of that particular coin is that nothing goes out over it without the express permission, or instigation of Russian leadership, so it is clear that when their articles are written or news spoken, it is exactly what Putin wants the world to know. With that said, the very first paragraph of Russia Today's editorial titled "America tuned out as Congress bangs war drum against Russia," which states that US House resolution 758 has "brought the nation one step closer to all-out-war with Russia," is a dire warning directly from Russia to the populace of the United States. Future historians - that is, assuming there are humans still around to contemplate history - may one day point to House Resolution 758 as the single piece of legislation that sparked a global conflagration between two leading nuclear powers. The article also goes on to take a look at House resolution 758, breaking it down, giving a birds-eye view of how Russian leadership views these actions on the part of the US Congress and it appears that things are about to get much uglier. Finance and Liberty's Elijah Johnson and Ann Barnhardt discuss current events where we hear how America has tossed out the "rule of law," and how "WWIII is Guaranteed."

Muckraker1: Could rapidly falling oil prices trigger a nightmare scenario for the commodity derivatives market? The big Wall Street banks did not expect plunging home prices to cause a mortgage-backed securities implosion back in 2008, and their models did not anticipate a decline in the price of oil by more than 40 dollars in less than six months this time either. If the price of oil stays at this level or goes down even more, someone out there is going to have to absorb some absolutely massive losses. In some cases, the losses will be absorbed by oil producers, but many of the big players in the industry have already locked in high prices for their oil next year through derivatives contracts. The companies enter into these derivatives contracts for a couple of reasons. Number one, many lenders do not want to give them any money unless they can show that they have locked in a price for their oil that is higher than the cost of production. Secondly, derivatives contracts protect the profits of oil producers from dramatic swings in the marketplace. These dramatic swings rarely happen, but when they do they can be absolutely crippling. So the oil companies that have locked in high prices for their oil in 2015 and 2016 are feeling pretty good right about now. But who is on the other end of those contracts? In many cases, it is the big Wall Street banks, and if the price of oil does not rebound substantially they could be facing absolutely colossal losses.

Live Free Or Die (B4IN): The removal of Barack Obama from office in a staged-coup may already be in play. This thread points out each of these videos from the past several months issue warnings that Barack Obama’s time in office may soon be coming to an abrupt end. Will a staged race war in America lead to a staged military coup in the near future? In this 1st video, beginning at the 50 minute mark Dr. Jim Willie speculates that Obama may have already been told his time in office is up, leading to great stress, isolation and boozing. In the 2nd video, at the 2 hour 9 minute mark, Eric Jon Phelps tells the Hagmann and Hagmann Report what may soon be coming including the invasion of Israel and the further subjugation of the American people.

Pam Martens and Russ Martens (Wall Street On Parade): On Thursday, November 20, 2014, the body of 54-year old Melissa Millan, a divorced mother of two school-age children, was found at approximately 8 p.m. along a jogging path running parallel to Iron Horse Boulevard in Simsbury, Connecticut. A motorist had spotted the body and called the police. According to the coroner’s report, it was determined that Millan’s death was attributable to a stab wound to the chest with an “edged weapon.” Police ruled the death a homicide, a rarity for this town where residents feel safe enough to routinely jog by themselves on the same path used by Millan. Information has now emerged that Millan had access to highly sensitive data on bank profits resulting from the collection of life insurance proceeds from her insurance company employer on the death of bank workers – data that a Federal regulator of banks has characterized as “trade secrets.” Millan was a Senior Vice President with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts and a member of its 39-member Senior Management team according to the company’s 2013 annual report. Millan had been with the company since 2001.

Aaron Hermann (Revelation of Babylon Blog): "Blue Beam" is more than a name. The Blue, Violet and Purple colors/frequencies are the "God' frequencies... the Alpha and Omega. frequencies. The current scientific work being done by TPTB are to lessen or eliminate those three colors, or barriers, so that there will be an increase in the dark frequencies. The more readily visible frequencies/colors represent the more worldly and 'dark' forces...(which does not seem natural to us, as yellows and oranges would seem, to us, to be 'happy' colors.). The more visible to us in this state of existence, the further these frequencies are from God... more worldly. Removing the blue-violet-purple, through HAARP and other means results in a concentration of negative power. by eliminating or lessening the blue range of light, they are removing the barriers that keep the dark frequencies in check... allowing them to concentrate... allowing dark forces to come together and increase in strength. God's rainbow is a visible reminder that He has all of the forces of nature and spirit in check. Some men understand this and are working to eliminate those checks and balances, for their own and the dark force's agendas. The rainbow represents the atmospheric 'covering' that God placed over/around the Earth after the flood, so that demonic forces would not have the ability to directly interact with men like they did in the days of Noah. Of course... The Bible says that the end times will be AS in the days. of Noah... so you can see how it is important to TPTB to put things back like the were before the flood? That is the purpose of HAARP and 'chemtrails' and all of the other projects. The true purpose is known by TPTB, but even those high up in the programs don't realize their true purpose.”

Psalms 10:1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD ? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?
2 In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
3 ¶For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD.
4 The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no God."
15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
16 ¶The LORD is King forever and ever; Nations have perished from His land.
17 O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear
18 To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.

****************

Harvey's comments on Tuesday price action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

Quote:

Gold: $1231.50 up $36.80
Silver: $17.08 up $0.86

In the access market 5:15 pm

Gold $1231.50
Silver $17.09

Monday, Dec 8th Gold and Silver Action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

http//harveyorganblog.com/

Total, Dec (Gold, Silver), Jan (Silver), Feb (Gold) Open Interest

In Silver:

Quote:

Silver OI fell by 823 contracts from 147,360 down to 146,537 even though silver was up by $0.02 yesterday. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI fall by 29 contracts down to 587 contracts. We had 1 notice served upon yesterday. Thus we lost 28 contracts or an additional 140,000 oz will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest fell today by 1490 contracts from 370,120 down to 368,630 with gold up by $4.57 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 1935 contracts for a loss of 28 contracts. We had 2 delivery notices served yesterday so we lost 26 contracts or 2600 oz of gold will not stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month rose by 78 contracts up to 602. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell to 230,922 contracts for a loss of 3,181 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 26,091. The confirmed volume yesterday was just as bad at 28,668. We had 5 notices filed for 25,000 oz today.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was fair at 106,136. The confirmed volume yesterday was also fair at 118,114 even with the help of high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 753 notices filed for 75,300 oz .

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 dealer withdrawals:
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 3 customer withdrawal:
i) Out of CNT: 600,325.710 oz
ii) Out of Brinks: 226,525.600 oz (one decimal)
iii) Out of HSBC: 20,024.530 oz.
Total customer withdrawal 846,875.840 oz.

We had 0 customer deposits:
We had 1 adjustment:
i) Out of Scotia: 16,425.588 oz was adjusted out of the customer and this landed into the dealer account.
Total dealer inventory: 737,549.196 oz or 22.94 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.903 million oz. (245.83) tonnes)

Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 57 tonnes have been net transferred out. We will be watching this closely!

Delivery Notices

In Silver:

Quote:

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 5 contracts or 25,000 oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 592 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 753 contracts of which 486 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2491) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (587) minus the number of notices filed today (5) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.

Thus: 2491 contracts x 5000 oz + (587) OI for the November contract month – 5 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,365,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 140,000 oz that will not stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2604) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (1935) minus the # gold notices filed today (753) x 100 oz = the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.
Thus the initial standings:
2604 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (1935) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (753) notices served today equals 378,600 oz or 11.77 tonnes.
We lost 26 contracts or 2600 oz that will not stand.

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 933.00, down 2.00%. WTI January crude was 63.22 up 0.21. Brent crude was 66.84 up 0.73. The spread between Brent and WTI was 3.62 up 0.52. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0200 at 2.8800. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0400 at 2.2200. The dollar was down 0.42 at 88.71. The PPT/Dow was 17801.20 down 51.28. Silver closed at 17.11 up 0.73. The GSR was 72.0281 down 1.4884 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 76.84 up 0.32 (0.42%). March wheat was down 12.25 at 585.750. March corn was up 5.00 at 395.25. February lean hogs were down 0.525 at 84.600. January feeder cattle were up 0.900 at 232.775. March copper was up 0.042 at 2.928. January natural gas was up 0.057 at 3.652. February coal was up 0.01 at 53.08.

~~Harvey 10 Mar 2014

Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): Gold jumped 2.3 percent to a six-week high yesterday as sharp falls on stock markets globally led to renewed demand for gold as a haven. Monday night and Tuesday saw renewed market turmoil across the world. Leading shares suffered their biggest daily fall since the middle of October, hit by renewed fears about the global economy and uncertainty in Greece following the announcement of snap presidential elections. The Shanghai Composite and Abu Dhabi’s ADX saw their sharpest falls since 2009. Wall Street joined in the global declines and stock markets lost $100 billion on Monday. The attention being brought to bear upon Greece highlights once again the hollow nature of the “recovery” in Greece, Europe and the western world. The crisis is far from resolved – merely to use the very true cliche – kicked down the road. Well we appear to be coming towards the end of the road in Greece and this could set the stage for the next stage of the Eurozone debt crisis. On cue, gold reacted to the global turmoil as it should, rising nearly 3 per cent, over $30 at one stage. Silver made even more impressive gains, rising 5.3 percent. Despite significant headwinds in 2014, in form of surging oil prices, surging and record high stock markets and the end of the FED’s QE, gold has performed very well this year and looks to be in the process of bottoming. Gold is 15.5% higher in yen terms, 13.2% higher in euro terms, 7.7% higher in sterling terms and has even made 2% gains in the “strong” dollar this year. Since November 7, gold has climbed nearly 10% from a four-year low. Japan’s massive QE experiment, China’s stimulus programme and signs that the ECB will increase money supply are again heightening gold’s appeal as a store of value.India, which accounts for about a quarter of global bullion demand, eased import restrictions on gold bullion, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today. The nation may change a rule mandating that “star trading houses” export all of their gold imports, Reuters reported today, citing an unnamed source. The U.S. Mint has sold a record number of silver coins this year as demand for silver bullion helped silver recover more than 20 percent since falling to a five-year low early this month.

Chris Powell (GATA): Most financial journalism and most academic teaching maintain that gold is at best a quaint antique. But gold not only remains money but may again become the best and most important money. Even more than this, gold is in fact the secret knowledge of the financial universe, a secret desperately concealed by central banks. Gold already is so important that Western central banks — particularly the U.S. Treasury and its Exchange Stabilization Fund, the Federal Reserve, and allied central banks — rig the gold market every day, even hour by hour, to control and usually suppress gold’s price. It’s because gold is a powerful competitive international currency that, if allowed to function in a free market, will determine the value of other currencies, the level of interest rates, and the value of government bonds. Gold’s performance is usually the opposite of the performance of government currencies and bonds. So central banks fight gold to defend their currencies and bonds. The problem is that the tactics of central banks in their war against gold affect far more than gold; they affect markets generally and eventually destroy markets generally. This destruction of markets now has a name, a name used even by former members of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. That name is “financial repression.” As it turns out, controlling the currency markets long has been the most efficient mechanism of imperialism. There is much history of this as well. Rigging the currency markets was the primary mechanism by which Nazi Germany expropriated occupied Europe during World War II. Expropriation by force of arms was actually only a small part of the Nazi conquest. The rigging of the currency markets — that is, the gross distortion of exchange rates in Nazi Germany’s favor — turned every citizen of an occupied country into an agent of the occupation every time he used money. This currency market rigging directed all production in the occupied countries into Nazi Germany and blocked any return flow of production. It enabled Nazi Germany to run without consequence the same sort of fantastic trade deficit run in recent years by the United States.

Koos Jansen (BullionStar): In the Chinese gold lease market all leases are made by commercial banks through Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) accounts and the gold on lease is not double counted, leveraged or fractionally backed, as is often the case in Western gold markets. Additional bullet points from the paper: In 2011 the PBOC had no gold leased, but the paper suggests the PBOC may participate in the domestic gold lease market to provide liquidity and develop the lease market. If the PBOC has any gold leased at this moment I don’t know. The PBOC wanted to boost the lease market in 2011 to develop the overall Chinese gold industry – the mining and jewelry business. This has been realized, the Chinese lease, mining and jewelry markets have grown substantially. There was a shortage of physical gold back then to meet demand in the lease market. The paper recommends to lift import restrictions, while preserving export restrictions. This has also been realized; net gold import was 1,500 tonnes in 2013.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 1 notice served for 100 oz. Silver Comex registered 72 notices for 360,000 oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.83 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest rose by a considerable 1658 contracts with yesterday’s rise in price of $0.86. Looks like some of the shorts are vacating the arena as they are scared at what they are witnessing. For the past year, we have been witnessing massive liquidation of contracts despite the fact that it cost nothing to roll. This makes no sense and it smacks of cash settlements which are totally illegal. Since I have been following Comex data, I have never witnessed such a massive liquidation in both gold and silver. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 148,195 contracts. The big December silver OI contract fell by 12 contracts down to 575 contracts. In gold we had a fall in OI with the rise in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $36.80. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 375,323 for a gain of 6693 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 1077 contracts losing 858 contracts. Today, great news, we gained another 2.99 tonnes of gold Inventory at the GLD / inventory rests tonight at 724.80 tonnes. The tap looks to be a little clogged in its supply of gold to China. In silver, we had no change in silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 345.223 million oz. GOFO rates: all rates moved closer to the positive and out of backwardation!!

Chris Powell (GATA): Suchecki writes that the PBOC analysis cited by Jansen is most notable for indicating the Chinese central bank’s potential interest in using gold leasing to manipulate the currency markets, much as Western central banks do. The disagreement may be important for Suchecki’s implicit reminder that it would be an exceedingly rare central bank that wanted free markets enough that it was willing to extend them to its own currency. Indeed, while gold advocates are inclined to root for China and Russia in the international currency war or competition because the governments of those countries seem to recognize gold’s monetary function, China and Russia don’t want free and transparent markets and limited and accountable government any more than Western governments do. If free markets for international trade are ever to be established, they probably will be established only begrudgingly as nations form themselves into blocs and those blocs balance the power of each other, possibly returning to gold as the neutral arbiter. Currency market rigging is the primary mechanism of modern imperialism. So of course the People’s Bank of China may aspire to the same totalitarian power exercised by the U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Board. But if those powers counter and balance each other, the rest of the world might be able to scratch out a little economic freedom.

Lawrence Williams (Mineweb): It now looks as though Chinese gold demand this year, as represented by withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange, will actually get pretty close to last year’s huge record of 2,199 tonnes. Withdrawals to the week ending November 28th have totalled 1,867 tonnes and with weekly withdrawal figures of comfortably over 50 tonnes (the latest reported week saw 54 tonnes withdrawn), we are heading for an annual total of close on 2,100 tonnes, particularly as the run up to the Chinese New Year tends to be a very strong period for gold demand in China. This suggests that the so-called ‘weak’ Chinese demand this year will only be around 5% down on last year’s huge record! With no action taken by the Indian government early on, the dam burst for gold demand and imports of gold shot up in the third quarter with some estimates suggesting that it was importing more gold than China over the period, although this writer thinks that is doubtful except perhaps for a very brief period given China’s ongoing high demand levels from around August onwards. India is in the heart of its Festival and Wedding seasons when gold gifting is incredibly important in Indian culture and demand may fall back, particularly as there have been further intimations that the government may further relax its gold import restrictions over and above the surprise withdrawal of the 80:20 rule just over a week ago. But even so, Indian gold imports will have been very strong again for the full year – perhaps back to the 1,000 tonne level if smuggled gold is taken into account. So where do we stand now? There is strong evidence that gold demand is holding up really well while supplies may be becoming more and more limited. There won’t be a downturn in new mined gold production yet, as big pipeline projects are still coming on stream or ramping up, more than replacing shuttered operations and falling grades elsewhere. As we have commented before, supply/demand fundamentals look to be improving all the time. Gold will react very positively sooner or later – it may already be doing so with the latest price rises, but it is still too early to tell.

Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb): More and more applications for silver are being invented, discovered, and, importantly, commercialized, said a new report from the Silver Institute and CRU Consulting, stoking the growth potential from several of the most important industrial silver applications. Total industrial silver demand is forecast to reach nearly 680 million ounces annually by 2018, according to the “Glistening Particles of Industrial Silver” report scheduled for public release Wednesday morning. Half of this growth will occur in the electrical and electronics sector, but additional demand will be due to growth in the use of silver in batteries, Ethylene Oxide (EO) in the chemical sector, anti-bacterial uses of silver, the automotive industry, silver coated bearings, and the brazing alloys/solders sector.

Peter Levring (Bloomberg News): As Mario Draghi tries to pump as much as 1 trillion euros ($1.23 trillion) of liquidity into the euro area, a little nation on Europe’s northern rim is preparing its defense of a 30-year-old currency regime. The unprecedented stimulus push by the European Central Bank president promises to test the euro peg in Denmark, where the benchmark interest rate is already below zero. Should ECB measures weaken the euro, Deputy Governor Per Callesen says, there is basically no limit on how far Denmark is willing to go to defend the krone’s peg to Europe’s single currency.

Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): It looks like to me that “confidence” if it is not broken yet, will very soon because control is being lost in too many of these markets. Was the price drop in oil a “control” measure by the U.S. to punish Russia? I believe yes, this was “our” plan but not “THE” plan. As I wrote a week ago, we may have thought it was our bright idea but I am sure the new Chinese/Saudi relations are as big of a factor, if not greater. Because so many different markets now begin to tell a story opposite of the “official” story, it tells me that “control” is now beginning to slip. If you doubt this, think to yourself “why have we had extraordinary measures” for six years? Why are we still six years later talking about recovery? What happened to the “expansion” phase? It’s like the Dutch boy with all of his fingers and toes in the dike, leaks are springing up everywhere and with each one more control is lost! If I am correct and this is true then we will either see massively convulsive markets or an outright closure and re set of prices. Please remember this, volatility will create more volatility just as a small fire or fires in a dry forest will spread and create more fire. Volatility will create losses and losses will create bankruptcies. It is these bankruptcies which will turn winners on the other sides of trades …also into losers. Quite simply, we have lived through the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time where leverage of over 100 to (probably 1,000 to one when all is said and done) has been employed for control. The recent volatility suggests that control is finally being lost. If this is true, and I firmly believe it is, we are on the doorstep of the worst financial panic event in all of human history. The sad part is the inhumanity. Only a small percentage of the global population ever even played in this game but everyone will be affected by it!

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Will Stewart (MailOnline): Russian elder statesman Mikhail Gorbachev today warned of the threat of Armageddon if Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin fail to rapidly 'defrost' their icy relations. The architect of glasnost also demanded that Moscow and the European Union end what he sees as the start of a new Cold War between east and west triggered by the Ukraine crisis. Fearing 'terrible consequences', he warned: The catastrophic fall in the level of trust in international relations came as a result of the events which took place in the last few months.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2868428/World-facing-Armageddon...
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Paul Singer (via AllSelfSustained): In a recent letter to investors, billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer warned that an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, is “the most significant threat” to the U.S. and our allies in the world. He’s right. Our food and water supplies, communications, banking, hospitals, law enforcement, etc., all depend on the electric grid. Yet until recently little attention has been paid to the ease of generating EMPs by detonating a nuclear weapon in orbit above the U.S., and thus bringing our civilization to a cold, dark halt. Recent declassification of EMP studies by the U.S. government has begun to draw attention to this dire threat. Rogue nations such as North Korea (and possibly Iran) will soon match Russia and China and have the primary ingredients for an EMP attack: simple ballistic missiles such as Scuds that could be launched from a freighter near our shores; space-launch vehicles able to loft low-earth-orbit satellites; and simple low-yield nuclear weapons that can generate gamma rays and fireballs. The much neglected 2004 and 2008 reports by the congressional EMP Commission—only now garnering increased public attention—warn that “terrorists or state actors that possess relatively unsophisticated missiles armed with nuclear weapons may well calculate that, instead of destroying a city or a military base, they may gain the greatest political-military utility from one or a few such weapons by using them—or threatening their use—in an EMP attack.” The EMP Commission reports that: “China and Russia have considered limited nuclear-attack options that, unlike their Cold War plans, employ EMP as the primary or sole means of attack.” The report further warns that: “designs for variants of such weapons may have been illicitly trafficked for a quarter-century.” During the Cold War, Russia designed an orbiting nuclear warhead resembling a satellite and peaceful space-launch vehicle called a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System. It would use a trajectory that does not approach the U.S. from the north, where our sensors and few modest ballistic-missile defenses are located, but rather from the south. The nuclear weapon would be detonated in orbit, perhaps during its first orbit, destroying much of the U.S. electric grid with a single explosion high above North America.

Greg Hunter (USAWatchdog): The G-20 met recently in Australia to make new banking rules for the next financial calamity. Financial reform advocate Ellen Brown says these new rules will allow banks to take money from depositors and pensioners globally. Brown explains, “It became rules we agreed to actually implement. There was no treaty, and Congress didn’t agree to all this. They use words so that it’s not obvious to tell what they have done, but what they did was say, basically, that we, the governments, are no longer going to be responsible for bailing out the big banks. These are about 30 international banks. So, you are going to have to save yourselves, and the way you are going to have to do it is by bailing in the money of your creditors. The largest class of creditors of any bank is the depositors.” It gets worse, as Brown goes on to say, “Theoretically, we are protected by deposit insurance up to $250,000 in the U.S. and 100,000 euros in Europe. The FDIC fund has $46 billion, the last time I looked, to cover $4.5 trillion worth of deposits. There is also $280 trillion worth of derivatives that the five biggest banks in the U.S. are exposed to, and under the bankruptcy reform act of 2005, derivatives go first. So, they are basically exempt from these new rules. They just snatch the collateral. So, if you had a big derivatives bust that brought down JP Morgan or Bank of America, there is no way there is going to be collateral left for the FDIC or for the secured depositors. This would include state and local governments. They all put their money in these big banks. So, even though we are protected by the FDIC, the FDIC is not going to have the money. . . . This makes it legal for these big 30 banks to take our money when they become insolvent. They are too-big-to-fail. This was supposed to avoid too-big-to-fail, but what it does is institutionalizes too-big-to-fail. They are not going to go down. They are going to take our money instead.”

Chris Hedges (TruthDig): Since 1980 the United States has constructed the world’s largest prison system, populated with 2.3 million inmates, 25 percent of the world’s prison population. Police, to keep the system filled with bodies, have had most legal constraints on their behavior removed. They serve as judge and jury on the streets of American cities. Such expansion of police powers is “a long step down the totalitarian path,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas warned in 1968. The police, who are often little more than predatory, armed gangs in inner-city neighborhoods, arbitrarily decide who lives, who dies and who spends years in prison. They rarely fight crime or protect the citizen. They round up human beings like cattle to meet arrest quotas, the prerequisite for receiving federal cash in the “drug war.” Because many crimes carry long mandatory sentences it is easy to intimidate defendants into “pleading out” on lesser offenses. The arrested are acutely aware they have no chance—97 percent of all federal cases and 94 percent of all state cases are resolved by guilty pleas rather than trials. An editorial in The New York Times said that the pressure employed by state and federal prosecutors to make defendants accept guilty pleas—an action that often includes waiving the right to appeal to a higher court—is “closer to coercion” than to bargaining. There are always police informants who, to reduce their own sentences, will tell a court anything demanded of them by the police. And, as we saw after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and after the killing of Garner, the word of police officers and prosecutors, whose loyalty is to the police, is law.

Live Free or Die (B4IN): With US bank runs across America now apparently imminent and a Christmas disaster predicted by Trends Forecaster Gerald Celente, Ya OughtaLearn shares a bizarre emergency alert text message that went out to unsuspecting Kentucky residents warning them of an ‘Extreme Alert! Prepare For Action!’ While this has been explained away as a ‘human error during testing’, we feel this is another sign they’re getting ready for something huge in America as the global economy prepares to turn to dust and our banking system crumbles.

Susan Duclos (AllNewsPipeline): Why would every major bank need survival kits for all their employees? Why is the US government prepared to spend up to $200,000 on survival kits for bank employees at Bank of America, American Express Bank, BMO Financial Corp., Capitol One Financial Corporation, Citigroup, Inc., JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, just to name a few? What do they know that we do not know? Perhaps they are preparing for bank runs and employees to be forced to shelter in place?

Josey Wales: Prophecy foretells of these seven year cycles, yet most people are unaware of their significance. Deuteronomy 15:1 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. For those of you who have been following my reports, you know I have been saying that the seven year market cycles point to a major market market decline in the fall of 2015. Maybe even the collapse of the U.S. Dollar as the reserve currency. A new discovery in prophecy by Bill Weather of the seven, sevens of economic chaos from 1966 to 2015. Rabbi Cahn has opened the door to these revelations, but herein, is a more fuller outlook. If 7 is the number of completion, then 7×7 is even more! And according to the seven sevens of the Shemitah, we are getting something much more serious near the late summer season of 2015, which could be of the 7 signs to WW3 at qwakeup.org.

Chris Powell on Central Bank Market Intervention: That central banks and governments are secretly trading all major futures markets in the United States signifies that central bank intervention in markets is now likely comprehensive — that there really are no markets anymore, just interventions, that the main objective of central banking now is to prevent markets from happening at all,and that the market economy that has been the engine of progress and democracy has been destroyed. This is the financial news story of the century. GATA has sent all these documents to major financial news organizations throughout the world. But no mainstream financial news organization has yet reported about them and what they mean. the rigging of the gold market is the rigging that facilitates the rigging of all markets — part of a much broader scheme by which a secretive and unelected elite in the United States and Western Europe controls the value of all capital, labor, goods, and services in the world — controls the value of everything and thereby impairs or destroys all markets and democracy itself everywhere and obstructs humanity’s progress. This is an utterly totalitarian and parasitic system. It is also just the latest manifestation of the everlasting war of the financial class against the producing class, only it is hidden well enough that the producing class hasn’t yet figured it out. DS: Powell admitted in his Munich speech, "But will any of us live to see the defeat of totalitarian central banking as it is now practiced? I don’t know. Sometimes I can only get apocalyptic about it." He quoted from a poem by James Russell Lowell where Lowell said,
"Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own."
Lowell's poem reminds me of the Sibyls who wrote, "And if the huge earth from the starry heaven Held not her throne far off, there had not been For men an equal light, but, bought with gold, 45 It had belonged to rich men and God must For poor men have prepared another world.

DS: Steve Quayle had an oracle in 1994 in which he had apocalyptic visions: The East Coast will experience the cold breath of my wind, just as they are cold and indifferent to my spirit so shall they be given to drink at my hand this cup of cold fury. As the inhabitants shake their heads in astonishment, this blast of my wind will bring them to their appointed time of reckoning as I force them to consider their ways as their lives come to standstill. The West Coast which burns in its lust with their insatiable desires and perversions will experience great fires and drought. Their cities will go up in flames and their infrastructures collapse. Yes, great quakes are coming as the earth shudders at their wickedness and the resultant fear and panic will cause great loss of lives! Those areas that call upon me in repentance can be spared certain aspects of my judgment, but the whole land will mourn. Yea; it is not just America that would be judged, but the whole earth shall know that I the Lord God have done these marvels. Entire countries will go bankrupt overnight and default on their loans and obligations. The entire international banking system that has been built on greed, fraud, deceit and murder will crash. The dust of their defeat already hangs suspended in the air like a choking mist! Your political structures in the United States will crumble as I reveal the sins and nakedness of your elected officials. I will judge your leaders who have shaken their fists at heaven and profaned my name and mocked the son of my love, Jesus. The White House will become a deserted Mausoleum as in an abandoned cemetery as my judgment comes upon this house of blood and perversion...Be certain that life as you have known it and as it has been in the past when this nation walked in my judgments, putting me first, cannot be regained until all the evil roots and fruits have been laid waste.

Psalms 11:1 In the LORD I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain;
2 For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"
4 ¶The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD'S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
6 Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.
7 For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.

****************

Harvey's comments on Wednesday price action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

Quote:

Gold: $1228.90 down $2.60
Silver: $17.13 up $0.05

In the access market 5:15 pm

Gold $1225.50
Silver $17.06

Tuesday, Dec 9th Gold and Silver Action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

http//harveyorganblog.com/

Total, Dec (Gold, Silver), Jan (Silver), Feb (Gold) Open Interest

In Silver:

Quote:

And now for the wild silver Comex results. Silver OI rose by 1658 contracts from 146,537 all the way up to 148,195 as silver was up by $0.86 yesterday. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI fall by 12 contracts down to 575 contracts. We had 5 notices served upon yesterday. Thus we lost 7 contracts or an additional 35,000 oz will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

he total gold Comex open interest rose today by 6693 contracts from 368,630 all the way up to 375,323 with gold up by $36.70 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 1077 contracts for a loss of 858 contracts. We had 753 delivery notices served yesterday so we lost 105 contracts or 10,500 oz of gold will not stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 48 contracts down to 554. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI rose to 237,167 contracts for a gain of 6,245 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 28,407. The confirmed volume yesterday was huge at 70,934. We had 72 notices filed for 360,000 oz today.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 88,545. The confirmed volume yesterday was good at 254,950 with the help of high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 1 notice filed for 100 oz.

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 dealer withdrawals:
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 3 customer withdrawal:
i) Out of Brinks: 999,892.000 oz ??????
ii) Out of Delaware: 992.660 oz
iii) Out of Scotia: 60,410.810 oz.
Total customer withdrawal 1,061,295.47 oz.

We had 1 customer deposits:
i) Into Scotia; 551,073.56 oz
Total customer deposits: 551,073.56 oz.
We had 0 adjustments
Total dealer inventory: 64.479 million oz.
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 176.204 million oz.

We had 1 customer deposits:
i) Into Scotia: 3215.000 oz.
We had 1 adjustment and it was a doozy!!

We had an exact removal of 450.000 oz from JPMorgan as an error of some sort.
I would like someone to explain this one!!

Total dealer inventory: 737,166.946 oz or 22.93 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.905 million oz. (245.87) tonnes)
Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 57 tonnes have been net transferred out. We will be watching this closely!

Delivery Notices

In Silver:

Quote:

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 72 contracts or 360,000 oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 1 contracts of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2563) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (575) minus (the number of notices filed today (72) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.

Thus: 563 contracts x 5000 oz + (575) OI for the November contract month – 72 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,330,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 35,000 oz that will not stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2605) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (1077) minus the # gold notices filed today (1) x 100 oz = the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.

Thus the initial standings:
2605 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (1077) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – 1) notices served today equals 368,100 oz or 11.449 tonnes.
We lost 105 contracts or 10,500 oz that will not stand.

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 911.00, down 2.36%. WTI January crude was 61.34 down 1.88. Brent crude was 64.24 down 2.60. The spread between Brent and WTI was 2.90 down 0.72. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0400 at 2.8400. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0500 at 2.1700. The dollar was down 0.55 at 88.16. The PPT/Dow was 17533.15 down 268.05. Silver closed at 17.06 down 0.05. The GSR was 71.8699 down 0.1582 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 76.18 down 0.66 (0.86%). March wheat was down 4.00 at 581.750. March corn was down 1.50 at 393.75. February lean hogs were down 0.050 at 84.550. January feeder cattle were down 1.175 at 231.600. March copper was down 0.035 at 2.893. January natural gas was up 0.054 at 3.706. February coal was down 0.11 at 52.97.

~~Harvey 11 Dec 2014

Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): Dr Marc Faber has warned about the continuing and coming decline of western economic power. He believes that the generation of young people starting to work today will be the first in two hundred years to have a lower standard of living than their parents had. He believes dividend paying Asian stocks will grow wealth in the coming years and remains an advocate of owning physical gold. “I meant that with respect to western societies and Japan where essentially the younger people – today’s generation – will earn less than their parents and they will have less wealth than their parents, inflation adjusted. [This is] because we will have wealth taxes, we will have more estate taxes and we have essentially declining real median incomes in the western world and Japan.” Faber has consistently warned since the late 1990’s that this dynamic would come to pass as the West and the U.S. in particular exported its industrial infrastructure and binged on consumer junk fuelled by easy credit while the emerging economies of east Asia used the proceeds to focus on production rather than consumption to become industrial powerhouses. He went on to say, “In the countries that opened up post breakdown of the socialist/communist ideology – China, Soviet Union, Eastern Europe - and India of course we have an entire generation who will earn much more and will have a better standard of living than their parents had.” He highlighted certain factors that are leading to this lower standard of living for young western people. Banks now generally charge more to hold one’s money than the interest they pay out. He cites the yields on Swiss ten year bonds at 0.46% as an example of how people, and especially young people, are disadvantaged relative to previous generations. “These people will not enjoy the compounding impact that I enjoyed having started to work in 1970 when bond yields were 6% and they went to 15% and so forth. So during that period of time wealth was accumulating very rapidly plus we had a huge boom in real estate and in equities and bonds between 1980 and 2007. That is not going to happen again.” Agricultural commodities including palm oil and Asian companies processing agricultural produce is where Dr. Faber currently sees value. Some of these companies in Malaysia and India, for example, pay dividends between 2% and 4%. The young people who invest in these types of company will see their wealth steadily rise as opposed to their western counterparts who rely on the casino of rising paper asset prices.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 0 notices served for nil oz. Silver Comex registered 115 notices for 575,000 oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.83 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest fell by a tiny 175 contracts with yesterday’s rise in price of $0.05. Looks like some of the shorts are vacating the arena as they are scared at what they are witnessing. For the past year, we have been witnessing massive liquidation of contracts despite the fact that it cost nothing to roll. This makes no sense and it smacks of cash settlements which are totally illegal. Since I have been following Comex data, I have never witnessed such a massive liquidation in both gold and silver. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 148,020 contracts. The big December silver OI contract fell by 58 contracts down to 517 contracts. In gold we had a fall in OI with the fall in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $2.60. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 372,720 for a loss of 2,603 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 1054 contracts losing 23 contracts. Today, we had another addition in gold inventory at the GLD of .95 tonnes/Inventory 725.75 tonnes. In silver, we had lost 2.873 million oz in silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 342.35 million oz. GOFO is positive and unchanged.

Zero Hedge: Having quickly learned that letting carbon-based traders engage in FX (or stock, or bond, or Libor, but not gold, never gold) rigging usually leads to said carbon-trader ultimately being fired with the bank suffering a violent slap on the wrist, banks are getting smart, and have — as we have been claiming for about four years — decided to let pre-programmed algos do all the market manipulation. Only this time it is not some tinfoil blog making this accusation, but New York regulators who, according to Bloomberg – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-10/ny-regulator-said-to-probe-deut…– have found evidence that Barclays and Deutsche Bank may have used algorithms on their trading platforms to manipulate foreign-exchange rates, a person with knowledge of the investigation said. As Bloomberg reports, the practice suggests there may be a systemic problem involving automated tools that goes beyond individuals colluding to rig currency benchmarks and take advantage of less sophisticated clients.

Chris Giles (Financial Times, London): Mark Carney, Bank of England governor, swept aside much of the secrecy that traditionally surrounds the central bank’s deliberations on Thursday, promising to publish voting details and minutes of interest rate decisions at the same time they are announced. The bank also wants to hold fewer monetary policy meetings each year and, after reviewing its practice of deleting recordings, has decided it will publish transcripts of monetary policy meetings after a delay of eight years. DS: After eight years, there won't be a system left worry about and the minutes will probably lie moldering in a wet basement or be burned to ashes, so his great transparency amounts to the same thing as his predecessors--none.

Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): This past week, Bill Gross reiterated the dire warning he’s given in the recent past. Bill Gross has been dubbed “the Bond King” has had more assets under management than anyone over the last 25+ years, to say he has a little experience under his belt is putting it lightly. He has also lived and invested entirely inside the box his entire career, he may be seeing a problem with the box itself. Bill Gross primarily managed bond portfolios and more or less had to “talk his book”, but this has really changed recently as he moved from PIMCO to Janus funds. Gross wrote https://www.janus.com/bill-gross-investment-outlook in his Dec. newsletter some very interesting and I might add very painful truths of the financial world. If you notice, the following paragraph was underlined by him as important: “How could they? How could policymakers have allowed so much debt to be created in the first place, and then failed to regulate their own system accordingly? How could they have thought that money printing and debt creation could create wealth instead of just more and more debt? How could fiscal authorities have stood by and attempted to balance budgets as opposed to borrowing cheaply and investing the proceeds in infrastructure and innovation? It has been a nursery rhyme experience for sure, but more than likely without a fairytale ending.” The basic premise to this newsletter is that a debt problem cannot be cured with more debt, (does this sound familiar to you?). I wanted to mention Bill Gross to you for several reasons. First, he is at the absolute pinnacle of the finance profession and the core of the system …debt. No one has managed more money nor been closer to the debt market internals than he has. I believe he sees the game coming to a head and wants to be “on the record” before it ends. Please understand what this man is saying about “HIS” industry, he used the word “pyramid scheme” within his thought process. The only worse word he could have used (which coincidentally starts with a P) is the word “Ponzi”! How anyone could read his thoughts and still stay “inside this financial box” is beyond me.

Zero Hedge: Just 2 short months ago we noted S&P’s warning that Greece will default again within 15 months and following comments by Prime Minister Samaras that the market’s drop is due to fear that Syriza will win an early election and seek a Greek exit from the Euro. Pressuring parliamentarians and the public alike, he stated “the choice is simple,” warning that Greek financing needs are only covered through the end of February without further aid from the EU (but we thought they were ‘recovered’). Greek stocks have crashed further, Greek default risk has spiked, and 3Y bond yields are now well north of 10% (138bps inverted to 10Y).

As Bloomberg reports,

Greek PM Antonis Samaras says country’s financing needs covered until end-Feb, in comments to lawmakers of his party in parliament today. Greece will get next tranche of its bailout loan; if we have elections everything is “up in the air”. Markets react to possible Syriza election win, fall because they fear Syriza. Samaras calls on all Greek lawmakers to assume their responsibility; says choice is simple, president or early elections. Samaras said Greece’s funding needs were covered until the end of February.Responding to speculation that the government might put forward different nominees in the three presidential vote rounds, Samaras said Stavros Dimas would remain the government candidate in all three rounds.

Tyler Durden: In the last 3 days, the broad Greek stock market has cratered a stunning 20%. This is the biggest 3-day drop since 1987 and all on the back of the ‘possibility’ that an anti-EU party takes over. Did we just get a glimpse of the ugly reality hiding behind the veil of status-quo-maintaining central-bank-sponsored manipulation?

Zero Hedge: The governor of Norway’s central bank says western Europe’s biggest oil producer is facing a major economic slowdown as crude prices continue to plunge. As Bloomberg reports, Oeystein Olsen said today in an interview after a press conference in Oslo, “our job now is that we need to prevent a severe downturn in the economy… that is presently the major concern of the board.” Olsen cut Norway’s main interest rate today by 0.25 percentage point to 1.25 percent, a move that shocked markets and sent the krone down almost 2 percent against the euro (weakest since July 2009). The decision came after almost three years of unchanged rates and marked a shift away from a policy that had sought to prevent excessive monetary easing from fueling house price growth. Even after today’s cut, the bank sees a “50-50 chance” for another rate reduction next year, Olsen said. Oil prices have plunged 44 percent from a June high, the worst decline since the financial crisis erupted in 2008. Norges Bank estimates oil investments will decline by 15 percent next year, with the risk of “spillover” effects on the rest of the economy and rising unemployment. And as Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com, this is why… since Norway depends on the oil industry for almost a quarter of its economic output and has built an $860 billion wealth fund from its offshore revenue. New oil projects are being scrapped in Norway amid falling production and low oil prices. Since 1990, Norway has diverted much of its oil earnings to a sovereign wealth fund, which has become the world’s largest. The money, reaching $890 billion as of June 2014, amounts to $178,000 for every Norwegian citizen. The sovereign wealth fund helps Norway avoid some of the problems associated with the “resource curse” by investing capital abroad. But more importantly, the money is set aside to be saved and invested to help the country plan for the eventual decline of oil production, with the intention of transitioning to a more diversified economy that can take oil’s place. The early cracks in Norway’s petrol-based economy are beginning to show, perhaps quicker than many predicted.

Christine Idzelis and Craig Torres (Bloomberg): The danger of stimulus-induced bubbles is starting to play out in the market for energy-company debt. Since early 2010, energy producers have raised $550 billion of new bonds and loans as the Federal Reserve held borrowing costs near zero, according to Deutsche Bank AG. With oil prices plunging, investors are questioning the ability of some issuers to meet their debt obligations. Research firm CreditSights Inc. predicts the default rate for energy junk bonds will double to eight percent next year. “Anything that becomes a mania — it ends badly,” said Tim Gramatovich, who helps manage more than $800 million as chief investment officer of Santa Barbara, California-based Peritus Asset Management. “And this is a mania.” The Fed’s decision to keep benchmark interest rates at record lows for six years has encouraged investors to funnel cash into speculative-grade securities to generate returns, raising concern that risks were being overlooked. A report from Moody’s Investors Service this week found that investor protections in corporate debt are at an all-time low, while average yields on junk bonds were recently lower than what investment-grade companies were paying before the credit crisis. Borrowing costs for energy companies have skyrocketed in the past six months as West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, has dropped 44 percent to $60.46 a barrel since reaching this year’s peak of $107.26 in June. As Deutsche Bank warned last month, a drop in the oil price to $60 a barrel “is likely to push the whole HY energy sector into distress.”

Zero Hedge: Yet another Hindenburg Omen today… (note yesterday’s very late crash in stocks managed to invalidate one of the indicators factors but the cluster remains unviolated overall). With America’s politicians apparently unable to agree on the Cromnibus Bill and government shutdown looming, weakness in crude oil, contagion in high-yield credit, and an extremely aggressive 30Y bond auction trumped the retail sales headlines (massively seasonally-adjusted as they were).

Tyler Durden: It’s a holiday miracle: give the worst creditors access to cheap money for longer-and-longer terms and hey presto, ‘expensive’ stuff is available to everyone. Retail sales modestly beat expectations in November (+0.7% vs +0.6% expectations) despite the NRF previously reporting the worst extended Thanksgiving shopping weekend since Lehman which surely got lost in the Arima-X-12 seasonal adjustments – sending USDJPY spiking to confirm what great news this is. What was the great news? A 0.1% beat of the key ex-autos and gas category, which increased 0.6% in November, vs Expectations of 0.5%, and a decline from the upward revised 0.7% in October.

Zero Hedge: This week saw the biggest WoW rise in continuing jobless claims since Nov 2008. While drawing any linkages to the collapse in the oil-well-permits is premature, the coincidence of the last 2 weeks seeing a dramatic trend change in continuing claims is noteworthy. Is this the start of the Shale Oil industry collapse contagion spreading to the broad economy?

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

The Burning Platform: As we grow ever closer to the day of reckoning, they will use every means at their disposal to paint a positive picture, regardless of the facts and reality for the average person. The examples of twisting, distorting and outright lying about the economic reality of our times are endless. These are some of the major false storylines peddled by our benevolent corporate fascist leaders: The BLS reported 321,000 jobs added in November and the unemployment rate at 5.8%. Jobs are plentiful, based upon these statistics. A skeptical critical thinking individual might ask a few questions or point out a few inconvenient facts the government purveyors of propaganda might not want us to ponder: The non-manipulated, non-seasonally adjusted number of jobs in November FELL by 270,000. The BLS added 600,000 jobs as an adjustment to achieve the headline grabbing result. If the jobs market is so good, why is the labor participation rate at a 30 year low of 62.8%? Since 2007 the number of working age Americans has risen by 17 million, while the number of employed has risen by less than 1 million, but the unemployment rate is about the same. Why would almost 14 million working age Americans leave the labor force since 2007 if the economy is booming and jobs plentiful, with 1.2 million leaving in the last 12 months? Why would payroll tax receipts be flat with last year if millions of new jobs have been created? If the country has really added 8 million jobs since 2010, how could real median household income FALL by 2.3%?

Gary Walton: On April 5, 1815 Mount Tambora a volcano thousands of miles away on the other side of the world awoke and rumbled with activity. The volcano exploded - the largest volcanic explosion in recorded history. What happened in the following months can only be described as a nightmare. Many people close to the volcano lost their lives in the event. Mount Tambora ejected so much ash and aerosols into the atmosphere that the sky darkened and the Sun was blocked from view. The large ash particles thrown into the air by the volcano covered the villages and towns nearby collapsing homes and buildings. But the real damage came from the tiny ash particles which were light enough to spread through the atmosphere over the following months and had a global effect on the climate. These tiny particles made their way into the stratosphere, where they could distribute around the world more effectively. Earth’s average global temperature dropped three degrees Celsius. That sunless summer had many impacts in Europe and North America. Crops were killed - either by frost or a lack of sunshine. This caused food to be scarce, and caused farmers who were able to grow crops to fear that they would be robbed. The lack of successful crops that summer made the food which was grown more valuable, and the price of food climbed. The eruption of Icelandic volcano Bardarbunga will have sweeping repercussions for western civilisation. Unlike Mount Tambora, Bardarbunga in Iceland is in our own back yard and an eruption on the scale of Mount Tambora would plunge western civilisation into the dark ages and would without doubt end in all out anarchy. The demand on the grid system alone would plunge us all into darkness, flights would grind to a halt, a run on the banks would cause the already vulnerable economy to crash, shops would empty and people would start killing each other. Its a question of when not if!

The Big Wobble Almanac: The eruption of Icelandic volcano Bardarbunga will have sweeping repercussions for the whole of Europe, and has been pencilled in as an "outrageous" risk for 2015 by Saxo Bank. The volcano was assigned a "red" warning last summer. The Icelandic Met Office description states that this signified an imminent risk of eruption, with a significant emission of ash into the atmosphere likely. After a large earthquake in August Bardarbunga has now been continually erupting for more than three months. The current "period of seismic unrest is one of the largest ever recorded in a volcano globally", Iceland’s own Civil Protection and Emergency Management has said. Imagine a winter of massive storms, constant flooding, raging winds and none stop rain and snow, you would think of the winter of 2013-14 in the U.K. Add one more possibility into the mix a, giant cloud of volcanic ash, we would have a winter like no other. A winter plunged into darkness, unbearable cold, massive storms, constant flooding, raging winds and none stop rain and snow. Throw in travel disruption, flood and wind damage to houses and infrastructure, livestock deaths, the demand on the grid system and the emergency services and you have a very plausible possibility for the U.K. this winter.

Allison Bray (Independent IE): Exorcists and paranormal investigators are urging people not to buy the occult board game Ouija as gifts unless they want to invite demonic forces into their homes this Christmas. The warning comes as Google predicted that the modern version of the Victorian-era 'spirit boards' will be a sell-out this Christmas. The search engine company has confirmed the game, purportedly used to contact the dead through spelled-out messages, is one of the top trending gifts on its price comparison list this year following the release of the Ouija horror film last month. While critics largely panned the film as cliched and horror-free, a Catholic priest based in Dublin who specialises in the occult, warned that messing around with the real thing can be horrifying, "It's easy to open up evil spirits but it's very hard to get rid of them," the Vincentian priest and exorcist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Sunday Independent. "People, especially young people and teenagers who are likely to experiment with Ouija boards on a whim, can be very naive in thinking that they are only contacting the departed souls of loved-ones when they attempt to communicate with the dead using the boards. "It's like going to some parts of Africa and saying I'm personally immune to Ebola. But it does leave people open to all kinds of spiritual dangers. People don't intend any spiritual harm by it, but we live in a spiritual realm and you have no way to control what may impinge on you." The exorcist said evil spirits, and even demons, will masquerade as departed loved ones as a means of gaining possession and, as a result, "people don't realise they can get infected".

NewsOK: More than 150 cattle valued at about $350,000 have been reported missing in southeastern Idaho, and authorities aren't excluding modern-day cattle rustling as beef prices have soared. Three ranchers say roundup searches in recent weeks in the hills and gulches on the remote summer range where the cattle graze have come up empty in two counties. Law enforcement officials say they have little to go on because it's not clear when the cattle might have disappeared after being turned out early last summer. U.S. cattle industry officials say beef prices are at record highs due to a combination of factors that include past droughts that caused cattle numbers to shrink and increased demand for beef on a global scale following the Great Recession.

Susan Duclos: Videographer Hyungs reminds us that many have predicted a giant asteroid to hit in September 2015, yet reports are coming in NOW of rivers turning to blood, which is what leads up to his claim that things appear to happening out of order. This all ties in with two other reports, one of a massive asteroid, 20 times the size of the one that hit Russia in February 2013, approaching Earth’s orbit and a warning from Bob Fletcher Investigations of Nibiru Incoming, which as many know, Nibiru, Planet X is also referred to as “wormwood,” by many that believe it is approaching. DS: What we are seeing now are man made disasters (Plant X a possible exception). The plagues accompanying the seven trumpets and seven bowls of wrath are for probably the last seven years of the present age. We still have from now until 2037-38 before Jesus comes. What we are witnessing now is the emergence of the 7th world empire of Rev 17:10. The elites running the NWO have planned chaos in the economy and the geography and among the nations (WWIII). We will see man-made famine, war, disease, and dangerous animals like mosquitos, serpents and wild boars. However, let no one think that we are about to see the rapture, the Antichrist and the Second Coming. God is going to bring economic collapse, a series of natural disasters and an invasion before Jesus returns.

Steve Quayle Alert: Steve, Just got back from Save A Lot in Mountain City, TN. It appears that basic supplies are dwindling, they were out of salt except for 2 damaged containers. I spoke with someone and they said they keep ordering it but it doesn't come in also all the Lilly White flour self rising and all purpose were gone and there were very few maybe 4 bags of the store brand of self rising and 16 bags of the all purpose...that is not a lot for this time of year. Please people stock up on your basic supplies, shortening, oil, flour, salt, baking powder,baking soda, vinegars...while they are affordable and available. Than you my brother for all you do the conformations really help folks see that it is happening...NOW....stay safe and well...Joy

Micheal Snyder (Economic Collapse Blog): Our way of life is far more vulnerable than most people would ever dare to imagine. A single major catastrophe could fundamentally alter all of our lives at any moment. But since most people have not experienced such a catastrophe during their entire lifetimes, most people just assume that there will never be one. This is called “normalcy bias” and it can lull us into a very false sense of complacency. The other day, Michael Hanlon of the Telegraph wrote an article entitled “How will the world end? From ‘demonic’ AI to nuclear war — seven scenarios that could end human race“. Below, I discuss each of those seven scenarios along with five additional ones that I have added. We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and as a society we have become exceedingly dependent on the technology that we have surrounded ourselves with. If something were to happen which would force us to live like our grandparents and great-grandparents did, most of us would be in a tremendous amount of trouble. The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it: 1) Asteroid strike: If a very large asteroid does hit us in just the right place, we could be talking about tens of millions of deaths and the collapse of entire nations. According to the University of California at Santa Cruz website, if a massive asteroid were to crash into the Atlantic Ocean it could produce a giant tsunami with a wall of water as high as 400 feet that would slam into the east coast of the United States. If an asteroid crashes into the Earth, it is likely to splash down somewhere in the oceans that cover 70 percent of the planet’s surface. Huge tsunami waves, spreading out from the impact site like the ripples from a rock tossed into a pond, would inundate heavily populated coastal areas. A computer simulation of an asteroid impact tsunami developed by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows waves as high as 400 feet sweeping onto the Atlantic Coast of the United States. In case you were wondering, yes, that would be absolutely catastrophic.

Psalms 12:1 Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
2 They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.
3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things;
4 Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?"
5 "Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he longs."
6 ¶The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.
7 You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever.
8 The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

****************

Harvey's comments on Thursday price action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

Quote:

Gold: $1225.10 down $3.80
Silver: $17.06 down $0.07

In the access market 5:15 pm

Gold $1227.00
Silver $17.08

Wednesday, Dec 10th Gold and Silver Action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

http//harveyorganblog.com/

Total, Dec (Gold, Silver), Jan (Silver), Feb (Gold) Open Interest

In Silver:

Quote:

Silver OI fell by 175 contracts from 148,195 down to 148,020 even though silver was up by $0.05 yesterday. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI fall by 58 contracts down to 517 contracts. We had 72 notices served upon yesterday. Thus we gained 14 contracts or an additional 70,000 oz will stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest fell today by 2,603 contracts from 375,323 all the way down to 372,720 with gold down by $2.60 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 1054 contracts for a loss of 23 contracts. We had 1 delivery notice served yesterday so we lost 22 contracts or 2200 oz of gold will not stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 51 contracts down to 503. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell to 233,726 contracts for a loss of 3,341 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 17,874. The confirmed volume yesterday was excellent at 51,280. We had 115 notices filed for 575,000 oz today.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 82,580. The confirmed volume yesterday was fair at 152,140 even with the help of high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 0 notices filed for nil oz .

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2678) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (517) minus (the number of notices filed today (115) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.

Thus: 2678 contracts x 5000 oz + (517) OI for the November contract month – 115 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,400,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We gained 70,000 oz that will stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

Not given.

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 911.00, down 2.36%. WTI January crude was 59.17 down 2.17. Brent crude was 63.15 down 1.09. The spread between Brent and WTI was 3.98 up 1.08. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0100 at 2.8300. The 10 year T-Note was up 0.0100 at 2.1800. The dollar was up 0.34 at 88.50. The PPT/Dow was 17596.34 up 63.19. Silver closed at 17.10 up 0.04. The GSR was 71.7778 down 0.0921 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 77.73 up 1.55 (2.03%). March wheat was up 15.75 at 597.500. March corn was up 4.75 at 398.50. February lean hogs were down 0.200 at 84.350. January feeder cattle were down 3.000 at 228.600. March copper was up 0.028 at 2.921. January natural gas was down 0.072 at 3.634. February coal was down 0.67 at 52.30.

~~Harvey 12 Dec 2014

Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): The New York Times published an important article this week in which the benefits of gold to nation states during a period of currency wars was highlighted. The article was noteworthy as the New York Times has rarely covered gold in a positive manner. The article, entitled ‘The Golden Age’ is about the growing use of gold in geopolitical affairs. They drew attention to the gold repatriation movements in Europe and to the accumulation of the precious metals in vast quantities by the central banks of the East - particularly Russia and China. It presents two major rationales for the current trend. "Some that've interpreted the metal's mini-comeback as an indication that financial Armageddon, in the guise of runaway inflation, is approaching. Others have read the recent move as a symbolic way for central banks and governments to make a show of strength in nervously uncertain economic times." The Times refers to the unprecedented waves of money printing by central banks in recent years "which in theory can devalue sovereign currencies." Despite the fact that massive money printing programs have always led to high inflation the Times seems to believe that this time it may be different - famous last words in economic terms. Russia and China are already are global players whose influence is growing as that of the U.S. declines. They may not view gold as an investment in the classic sense how they clearly view gold as an important monetary asset as seen in their declarations and in the enormous volumes they have been accumulating.

GoldCore: Chinese demand for gold remains robust. Volumes on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) for the benchmark spot gold contract climbed yesterday to a three-week high. Members of the century-old Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society in Hong Kong should be able to start trading the yellow metal in Shanghai from March, allowing them to tap into mounting demand in China, the world’s leading gold buyer. The CGSE has been accepted by the Shanghai Gold Exchange as a strategic trading member, allowing CGSE members to do business on the main and international boards of the Chinese exchange, Haywood Cheung, president of the CGSE, told Reuters in an interview. Cheung said the CGSE was building a system to link into Shanghai trading, which was expected to be ready in March next year. Its members would be able to trade for themselves and for clients.

Tyler Durden: And just like that, the list of countries who want to repatriate their gold just increased by one more, because after Venezuela, Germany, the Netherlands, sorry Switzerland, and rumors of Belgium, we now can add Austria to those nations for whom the “6000 year old barbarous relic bubble” is more than just “tradition.”

Lynette Tan (Fastmarkets.com): HSBC expects silver to see a 11 million ounce deficit in 2015. The bank predicts the deficit will come mainly from a reduction in mine production. The demand and supply balance for silver is likely to swing from a three million ounce surplus in 2014 to an 11 million ounce deficit in 2015, said HSBC in a report focusing on the outlook of silver. The deficit comes mainly from a reduction in mine production, lower scrap supplies as well as a cea halt to government sales. Consequently, the small but persistent deficit should limit further price declines. Despite the deficit forecast, the bank is keeping its average price for silver outlook at $17.65 for 2015 and expects the precious metals to trade in the price range between $15 to $21 per ounce. DS: It is noteworthy that one of the big manipulators is now predicting a supply deficit in silver. It is noteworthy because the establishment has denied a silver supply deficit for years. If a member of the core cadre is forecasting a deficit after denying silver deficits that have existed for probably at least a decade, it could be an elitist tip of the hat warning of what is to come.

Koos Jansen (BullionVault): On December 9, 2014, Albert Cheng, Managing Director Far East of the World Gold Council, was interviewed by the China Gold Network. The interview was published in Chinese only. The Gold Demand Trends published each quarter by the World Gold Council (WGC), show aggregated Chinese consumer demand Q1 – Q3 2014 has been 638.4 tonnes. But, in the interview Cheng notes that the chairman of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), Xu Luode, stated the SGE has been supplied by 1,100 tonnes of gold import in the first eleven months of 2014 and this number may reach 1,250 tonnes by year end. Supplemented by 450 tonnes of domestic mine production this year “total demand should reach about 1700 tonnes”, said Cheng. I have been long disputing Chinese gold demand numbers from the WGC, as total supply (Chinese net import, domestic mining and scrap) persistently has been transcending the WGC numbers. The WGC has never been able to elucidate the difference between massive supply and their demand numbers. The aggregated difference from 2007 until present is about 3,000 tonnes. Using the numbers supplied by Xu Luode, they in fact show that China imported about 1100 tonnes of gold in the first 11 months this year through the SGE, and may reach 1200 to 1300 tonnes by year end. Adding together domestic production, total demand should reach about 1700 tonnes. So, the energy of the China gold market hasn’t diminished; compared to last year, the development is still healthy.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 1 notice served for nil oz. Silver Comex registered 0 notices for nil oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.83 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest fell by a tiny 484 contracts with yesterday’s fall in price of $0.07. Looks like some of the shorts are vacating the arena as they are scared at what they are witnessing. For the past year, we have been witnessing massive liquidation of contracts despite the fact that it cost nothing to roll. This makes no sense and it smacks of cash settlements which are totally illegal. Since I have been following Comex data, I have never witnessed such a massive liquidation in both gold and silver. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 147,536 contracts. The big December silver OI contract fell by 120 contracts down to 397 contracts. In gold we had a fall in OI with the fall in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $3.80. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 368,521 for a loss of 4,199 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 1044 contracts losing 10 contracts. Today, we had no change in inventory with respect to gold inventory at the GLD /Inventory 725.75 tonnes. In silver, no change in silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 342.35 million oz. GOFO rates are positive but decreasing.

Chanyaporn Chanjaroen and Andy Hoffman (Bloomberg): Gunvor executives decided to abandon the precious metals trading business partly because of difficulties in finding steady supplies of gold, where the origin could be well documented, one of the people said. Gunvor’s announcement earlier this year that it would begin physically trading precious metals was unusual as neither Glencore Plc (GLEN), the biggest metals trader, nor Trafigura Beheer BV (the second-largest) trade physical gold.

It Is A Mystery: In the longer term the only thing that matters is gold de-coupling from the dollar trade. The spark that will make this happen is without a doubt one of two things. Either there is a military confrontation of extreme significance or we start to see massive stress in global sovereign debt. Once either or both of these occur, the pair trades that everyone seems to have on, along with hedges that have worked for years will all go up in smoke. That period of time is coming and when it does I believe volatility in gold will reach unprecedented levels. Until that time, gold will continue to trade irrespective of supply and demand fundamentals and simply mirror FX.

Roel Janssen: Nearly half of the gold looted by the Nazis from the Dutch central bank during the Second World War remains to this day in Switzerland, a reminder of the Alpine nation’s controversial role as a financial conduit for Hitler’s regime. About 61,000kg of Dutch war gold, currently value at about €2bn, is believed to be still in Swiss possession.

Chris Powell (GATA): The TF Metals Report’s Turd Ferguson writes today that the CME Group, operator of the major futures exchanges in the United States, has announced that starting December 22 it will impose trading price “collars” — fluctuation limits — for gold and silver futures contracts, triggering five-minute trading halts if the gold price should move $100 and the silver price move $3 from the previous close. Ferguson notes that the big investment banks are under heavy criticism for rigging commodity prices and wonders whether the exchange system’s action signifies their exit from commodity trading.

Bron Suchecki (PerthMint): The World Gold Council’s proposal to the Indian government this week probably won’t do much to address the government’s main concern about gold, rupees leaving the country to purchase the monetary metal and thereby adding to the government’s current account deficit. That’s the analysis today from Perth Mint official Bron Suchecki. Suchecki wonders if the gold council is trying to pull a fast one on the Indian government. But that would require believing that the council really wants to increase demand for metal rather than paper.

Chris Powell (GATA): Drawing on the work of economist Antal Fekete, Hugo Salinas Price argues today that interest-rate suppression damages labor by making capital less expensive relative to labor. As a result of interest-rate suppression, Salinas Price writes, “management will seek to reduce relatively more expensive labor by taking on debt to acquire capital goods to replace overall labor costs. In other words, the ‘terms of trade’ for manual laborers and employees are now set up against them.”

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

John Ale: Planet X, a gigantic celestial wrecking ball known in ancient times as Nibiru, The Destroyer, Wormwood, The Frightener, the Terrible Comet, Hercolubus and various other names) is headed toward Planet Earth once again, and has already begun to spawn a series of global catastrophes. A smaller star — possibly a brown dwarf star — orbits the Sun [DS: far away from our sun], and seven planets orbit the second sun. Planet X is the outermost planet in the brown dwarf system, which invades our inner solar system every 3,600 years or so. Ancient civilizations warned us that Planet X would return in the future and wreak havoc on Planet Earth.

Tom Horn's 2007 interview with Dr. Tom Van Flandern: Discovery of extraterrestrial artificiality has already been made on at least one other planet and massively covered up by a league of nations, Dr. Tom Van Flandern gave an interview to Tom Horn in 2007 in which he described apparently artificial artifacts on Mars. The biggest surprise of the space program to date has been the finding of several categories of anomalies on the surface of Mars that, if seen on Earth, would certainly be attributed to human activity. These include an abundance of special shapes not normally found in nature, such as closed triangles and pyramids; vehicle-like tracks and trails across otherwise featureless desert terrain; mostly underground networks of huge “glassy tubes” apparently extending for hundreds of miles, visible in places where the surface is cracked, and seeming to connect interesting surface places; odd patterns and symbols; and an abundance of large-scale “artistic” imagery such as the five known faces on Mars and some geoglyphs reminiscent of those on the plains of Nazca in Peru. Closed triangles with sharp vertices and straight sides are not normally seen in nature. 3, 4, and 5-sided pyramids are also rare. Yet many of these are found on Mars, but not on any other planet or moon yet examined in similar detail. On the Elysium plains of Mars there may be an entire field of pyramid-shaped objects laid out in linear arrays. From an examination of hundreds of these objects, we know that they are tube-like shapes typically 50–100 meters in diameter. White bands wrap around the tube about every ten meters along its entire length. The material between bands is translucent, and we can faintly see the white bands on the underside through the tube. When direct sunlight is available, it reflects from the tube in a mirror-like way instead of just scattering the light. Where a boulder has damaged a tube, we often see a collapsed tube section, where broken white bands lie flat on the surface, and sharp, spine-like portions of broken bands jut out from an intact-but-torn tube section. Tubes are visible mainly in fissures or where a flood has eroded away the topsoil. In some places, they can be traced underground in infrared images that can detect such things if they are not too far below the surface. Some tubes cross one another (one above, one below) in perpendicular intersections, while others have junctions where one tube becomes two or vice versa. In a few places, many tubes come together in patterns suggestive of “terminals” for train stations.

Bill Gertz (FreeBeacon): Millions of Americans face catastrophic loss of electrical power during a future magnetic space storm that will disrupt the electric grid and cause cascading infrastructure failures, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document. DHS’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stated in an internal 2012 fact sheet outlining its response plan for severe “space weather” that the actual impact and damage from a future solar storm is not known. “An analysis of the space weather impacts indicates that the greatest challenge will be to provide life-saving and life-sustaining resources for large numbers of people that experience long-term power outage from damage to the U.S. electrical grid,” the FEMA document, dated March 1, 2012, states. The FEMA fact sheet noted the findings of a 2010 study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that monitors sun storms, warning that an extreme solar storm could leave “130 million people without power for years,” and destroy or damage more than 300 hard-to-replace electrical grid transformers.

Vladimir Platov (New Eastern Outlook): The number of biological warfare research laboratories has been increasing for years. Back in 2006 their number reached 400 laboratories which were designed to facilitate the “war on terror”, Washington is actively redeploying such research laboratories to third-world countries where there’s a possibility to study the effectiveness of viruses aimed at different animals and local populations. In case of a possible military confrontation in a region, the effect of such viruses can be devastating for the region. Thus, in Ukraine alone, where the risks of regional contamination with lethal viruses is extremely high due to ongoing political instability one can find 11 such laboratories, some of them are deployed in contested areas. For this reason, one shouldn’t be surprised by the recent outbreak of anthrax in the Odessa region in the spring and summer of this year. Hundreds of such laboratories exist in other countries, particularly in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, India, Iraq, Tanzania, South Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In this regard, the increasing amount of reports on Pentagon’s involvement in the Ebola outbreak is not surprising, neither are the claims that Pentagon experts have already found “the effective cure” for this disease. First appeared: https://journal-neo.org/2014/12/11/rus-e-bola-kto-vinovat-v-ee-vspy-shke/

Jim Willie (B4IN): Samsung, LG, Hyundai, are not going to sit back and let Toyota and Japan take over world trade by debasing the yen. We are going to see a lot of damage and the importers suddenly stopping. They are going to delay these orders and cancel Japanese orders. Their whole export trade with Asia is going to get messed up. Thank you, Fed! This is how the dollar is killing the entire world’s financial structure. The Japanese are going to cause a currency war in Asia. We’re not gonna get a year! They are going to win an acceleration in the end game, an acceleration in the Asian’s decision to get rid of the dollar and move with China and Russia and Germany into the gold standard. Most of what’s going on in the world has a gold subtitle story. The US is causing problems around the world because they insist on using military force to defend the dollar. The world is concluding that the dollar must die, and must be replaced by the gold standard. And we have to do it very quickly, before the entire global economy is dead! The dollar croaked in 2008 and this is all aftermath. We’ve got a huge IV of QE trying to revive a dead economy. Asia is going to be united AGAINST the dollar. We are going to see Abe tossed to the curb…woudn’t it be nice if the US could toss out the Kenyan? QE not only kills capital, it kills capitalism! The dollar is being kicked to the curb in global trade. When it’s not used in global trade, the global major banking systems will discharge their Treasury Bonds. They could pick up gold. “

SGT Report: The International Criminal Banking System IS Now In The Process Of Collapsing. Here’s the Latest Dramatic Proof: CME Implements $400 wide gold circuit breakers for vast price swings. U.S Treasury seeks ‘Survival Kits’ for Federal Bank Examiners. U.S. Taxpayers Now On The Hook For $303 TRILLION in Wall Street Derivatives.

Michael Snyder (End of the American Dream): Our way of life is far more vulnerable than most people would ever dare to imagine. A single major catastrophe could fundamentally alter all of our lives at any moment. The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it: [The first was asteroids] 2) Could the machines one day rise up and take over? Personally, I am skeptical, but some of the brightest minds in the world are deeply concerned about this. Just consider the following excerpt from Michael Hanlon’s article in the Telegraph. Humanity may have already created its own nemesis, Professor Stephen Hawking warned last week. The Cambridge University physicist claimed that new developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) mean that within a few decades, computers thousands of times more powerful than in existence today may decide to usurp their creators and effectively end humanity’s 100,000-year dominance of Earth. This Terminator scenario is taken seriously by many scientists and technologists. Before Prof. Hawking made his remarks, Elon Musk, the genius behind the Tesla electric car and PayPal, had stated that “with artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon,” comparing it unfavourably with nuclear war as the most potent threat to humanity’s existence.

OrganicHealth: Dr. Otto H. Warburg was one of the 20th centuries leading biologists, and he discovered that the root cause of cancer is too much acidity in the body. He firmly believed that there was a direct relationship between pH and oxygen. Higher pH, which is Alkaline, means higher concentration of oxygen molecules, while lower pH, which is acidic, means lower concentrations of oxygen…the same oxygen that is needed to maintain healthy cells. In 1931 Dr. Warburg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this important discovery. He stated, “Cancerous tissues are acidic, whereas healthy tissues are alkaline. Water splits into H+ and OH- ions, if there is and excess of H+, it is acidic; if there is an excess of OH- ions, then it is alkaline”. In his work The Metabolism of Tumours Warburg demonstrated that “all forms of cancer are characterized by two basic conditions: acidosis and hypoxia (lack of oxygen). Lack of oxygen and acidosis are two sides of the same coin: where you have one, you have the other.” “All normal cells have an absolute requirement for oxygen, but cancer cells can live without oxygen – a rule without exception. Deprive a cell 35% of its oxygen for 48 hours and it may become cancerous.” Dr. Warburg has made it clear that the root cause of cancer is oxygen deficiency, which creates an acidic state in the human body. Dr. Warburg also discovered that cancer cells are anaerobic (do not breathe oxygen) and cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen, as found in an alkaline state.

Tim Brown (FreedomOutpost): In the first of what is believed to be many court battles over the lawlessness of Barack Obama's Executive Amnesty, which he has yet to actually write, Sheriff Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scored a victory. The judge in the case ruled in Arpaio's favor and put case arguments and hearings on a fast track, in spite of Obama Justice Department attorneys asking until the end of January to submit their initial response. According to the complaint filed by attorney Larry Klayman on behalf of Arpaio, "This unconstitutional act will have a serious detrimental impact. Specifically, it will severely strain our resources. Among the many negative [e]ffects of this executive order, will be the increased release of criminal aliens back onto streets of Maricopa County, Arizona, and the rest of the nation."

Psalms 13:1 How long, O LORD ? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 ¶Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
4 And my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.
5 ¶But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

****************

Harvey's comments on Friday price action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

Quote:

Gold: $1222.10 down $3.10
Silver: $17.02 down $0.04

In the access market 5:15 pm

Gold $1222.60
Silver $17.03

Thursday, Dec 11th Gold and Silver Action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

http//harveyorganblog.com/

Total, Dec (Gold, Silver), Jan (Silver), Feb (Gold) Open Interest

In Silver:

Quote:

And now for the wild silver Comex results. Silver OI fell by 484 contracts from 148,020 down to 147,536 even though silver was down by only $0.07 yesterday. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI fall by 120 contracts down to 397 contracts. We had 115 notices served upon yesterday. Thus we lost 5 contracts or an additional 25,000 oz will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest fell today by 4,199 contracts from 372,720 all the way down to 368,521 with gold down by $3.80 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 1044 contracts for a loss of 10 contracts. We had 0 delivery notice served yesterday so we lost 10 contracts or 1000 oz of gold will not stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 82 contracts down to 421. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell t0 229,702 contracts for a loss of 4,024 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 16,174. The confirmed volume yesterday was fair at 37,741. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 62,834. The confirmed volume yesterday was fair at 150,982 even with the help of high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 1 notice filed for 100 oz.

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:

Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 1 dealer withdrawal:
i) Out of CNT: 431,404.15 (two decimals out of three).
Total dealer withdrawal: 431,404.15 oz

We had 0 adjustments.
Total dealer inventory: 64.595 million oz.
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 176.447 million oz.

In Gold Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 dealer transactions.

Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz
We had 0 dealer deposit:

Total dealer deposit: nil oz
We had 1 customer withdrawals
i) out of Manfra: 32.15 oz
Total customer withdrawal: 32.15 oz
We had 0 customer deposits:

We had 0 adjustments

Delivery Notices

In Silver:

Quote:

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts or nil oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2678) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (397) minus (the number of notices filed today (0) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2678 contracts x 5000 oz + (397) OI for the November contract month – 0 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,375,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 25,000 oz that will not stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 1 notice was issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 1 contract of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts or nil oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2678) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (397) minus (the number of notices filed today (0) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2678 contracts x 5000 oz + (397) OI for the November contract month – 0 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,375,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 25,000 oz that will not stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2606) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (1044) minus the # gold notices filed today (1) x 100 oz = the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.
Thus the initial standings:
2606 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (1044) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (1) notices served today equals 364,900 oz or 11.32 tonnes
We lost 10 contracts or 1,000 oz that will not stand.

Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 57 tonnes have been net transferred out.

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 863.00, down 2.71%. WTI January crude was 57.81 down 1.36. Brent crude was 61.85 down 1.30. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.04 up 0.06. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0700 at 2.7600. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0800 at 2.1000. The dollar was down 0.18 at 88.32. The PPT/Dow was 17280.83 down 315.51. Silver closed at 17.04 down 0.06. The GSR was 71.7019 down 0.0759 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 77.83 up 0.10 (0.13%). March wheat was up 9.00 at 606.500. March corn was up 9.00 at 407.50. February lean hogs were down 1.100 at 83.250. January feeder cattle were down 3.000 at 225.600. March copper was up 0.013 at 2.934. January natural gas was up 0.161 at 3.795. February coal was down 0.20 at 52.10.

RE: Smoke and Mirrors

Karankawa, thanks for the reply. Nobody could be as stupid as to universally apply the policies these "leaders" are following. What they are doing is a deliberate deconstruction of the global economy. They are doing it to use the chaos they create to allow them to seize complete control and having done that to reduce the population to a much smaller size. On the surviving population they intend to impose a techno-slavery from which there is no escape, since free-will will be overridden by an implanted device. Our only hope is that God will clean house and restore America to His service and defend His people against unbreakable tyranny. The bad part is, there won't be that many of us left by the time He achieves His objective. My prayer is that the remnant will be big and strong and not fear to stand and have the faith to take this nation back.

Lest anyone be angry with God for not nipping the problem in the bud, He let it go this far because He is using what happens now as lessons for eternity. This present age was designed to solve the problem of evil that springs from God allowing free will. Consequently, what is happening to us will be used in eternity when any wannabe sinner contemplates rebellion against God. God is somehow saving a record of this world for use in the next. What is happening is like Jesus steadfastly setting His face toward Jerusalem when He knew He was going to be crucified. It had to be done. It is pointless to ask God to stop the desolation, because for this cause are we here at this time. We can ask God to minimize the effects of the disasters, but He planned the things of this time from the beginning of this world for use in the next.

~~Harvey 15 Dec 2014

Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): Silver bullion demand remains very robust as silver stackers continue to stack. 2014 has been another record-breaking year at the U.S. Mint which has sold 43.3 million silver eagle coins – up from 42.7 million coins last year. Record demand in 2014 was seen despite the U.S. Mint running out of Silver Eagles early last month due to very high demand throughout October. As a consequence of this lack of supply, November sales of the coins were down 40.8% according to Reuters. Silver prices fell 36% last year and, despite obvious shortages in the supply of physical silver, they have declined a further 12.5% this year. This demonstrates the degree to which naked shorting of the market – the selling of paper contracts for gold which the seller is not actually in possession of – is determining price of the physical metal. Why is it that demand is so high for an investment whose price is falling? For one, silver is a poor man’s gold. Working people with little disposable cash who are nervous about the condition of the global economy can hedge against instability, systemic risk and currency debasement by acquiring a small allocation of silver. One ounce of silver is currently valued at $16.87. Whereas smaller gold bullion coins such as sovereigns are currently valued at around $283. This makes silver a more attractive and realistic option for a section of people in the western world who have seen their standards of living decimated in recent years. Clearly, record demand for silver eagles shows a high level of anxiety and indeed fear regarding their financial well-being and that of their families.

Koos Jansen (BullionVault.com): Yesterday, December 12, we learned the next European county in line – after Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlandsand Belgium – to openly talk about repatriating its gold reserves is Austria. This came to me as no surprise. Since May a lot has happened; Russia’s central bank increased its gold reserves significantly, China keeps importing huge quantities of gold, the Swiss population has expressed their concern on their gold reserves, The Netherlands has repatriated 122.5 tonnes from the New York Fed and Belgium openly stated it’s investigating to repatriate, which a central banker would never say if it wasn’t to act accordingly in my opinion. All this is happening in a global environment of QE. Would these developments make the Austrians, that were already a little jumpy on this topic, even more or less nervous? It looks like Austria is taking it step by step, just like The Netherlands did. First there was some discussion in politics about the official gold reserves and then actions are being taken behind the scenes, in the case of Austria they started to allocate their gold. The fact concrete actions already have been taken since July 2013, tells me there is a significant probability more will follow; such as repatriating gold from London. Bear in mind The Netherlands had not even talked openly about repatriating while all along preparing it. Who knows how many countries are preparing or discussing repatriating behind closed doors at this moment?

Chris Powell (GATA): Spain is the home of cheap breakfasts with a set menu comprised of toast, coffee, and orange juice often coming in at least Euro 3. But a baker in the village of Algatocín near the Andalusian town of Ronda is bucking the trend by selling what he has dubbed “the most expensive bread in the world.” The 14-ounce loaves made at the Pan Pina bakery contain whole wheat dough and spelt with dehydrated honey. The loaves also contain one key extra ingredient: 250 milligrams of gold dust with a value of E100. Juan Manuel Moreno, a co-owner at the bakery, told Spain’s ABC newspaper he came up with the idea after seeing the “world’s most expensive coffee” on sale at another business in the region. Moreno says Arab, Russian, and Chinese buyers based on the Costa de Sol have shown the most interest in the bread. However, a national supermarket chain is set to start selling the product while a restaurant in Ronda also has expressed an interest.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 35 notices served for 3,500 oz. Silver Comex registered 178 notices for 890,000 oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.83 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest rose by a considerable 1847 contracts with Friday’s fall in price of $0.04. Looks like some of the shorts are vacating the arena as they are scared at what they are witnessing. For the past year, we have been witnessing massive liquidation of contracts despite the fact that it cost nothing to roll. This makes no sense and it smacks of cash settlements which are totally illegal. Since I have been following Comex data, I have never witnessed such a massive liquidation in both gold and silver. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 149,333 contracts. The big December silver OI contract fell by 14 contracts down to 383 contracts. In gold we had a rise in OI with the fall in price of gold Friday to the tune of $3.10. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 373,072 for a gain of 4,551 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 881 contracts losing 163 contracts. GOFO is positive and decreasing.

DS: on Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): Bill says the markets have one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel. He gave some examples of the fragile condition of the global economy. China basically shut down its shadow banking system and caused a 5.6% stock market crash that was followed in other markets around the world. Oil crashed to under $60 a barrel. One firm (Phibro) closed up shop and massive oil derivative calls will probably follow. Congress passed a spending bill with provisions that put the US Government on the hook for over $300 trillion in bank derivatives. This action will certainly bankrupt the US government and the FDIC. The treasury put out a call for survival packs for its bank examiners. The Chicago Fed is bricking up its first floor windows. Russia moved up the implementation date for its version of SWIFT and went live today (15 Dec 14). Gold and silver werer the best performing assets last week, so they were blatantly slammed today. Austria is now considering repatriating all her gold, making way for a northern euro leaving the PIFIGS to fend for themselves. CME/Comex put a collar on gold and silver trading, limiting daily moves in gold to $400 and silver to $12. Does the CME really see $12 moves in silver coming? So there you have it, we had a disastrous week for financial assets and huge news, most of which points to sides being chosen and “official readying” for upcoming events. I might add that a 6th Hindenburg omen was spotted on Thursday which most probably bodes very poorly for the stock market(s). With all of these events lining up, one might think the U.S. public is in a somber mood. But no, consumer sentiment numbers reported Friday saw a huge upswing …either the public is not very bright or the reported numbers are bogus …or both? The market action is clearly showing we have entered a credit contraction. Any credit contraction is a death sentence to a system which is overleveraged and already standing on a banana peel. The markets are trying to say this at the same time “official” moves are portraying something very big is afoot. Central banks are now collectively “running the bank”. If one had no prior knowledge of anything financial prior to this week, what was learned this week alone is enough to know something is very wrong, something very bad is going to happen and it is going to happen very soon. I would suggest if your plans are not already finalized, do not wait until the new year to do so!

Andrew Critchlow (The Telegraph): Opec’s most influential producers are willing to allow oil prices to fall to $40 per barrel before discussing whether the cartel should hold an emergency meeting to discuss cutting output. According to Suhail al-Mazrouei, energy minister of the United Arab Emirates and a high profile delegate of the cartel: “We are not going to change our minds because the prices went to $60, or to $40.” The official’s comments made to Bloomberg News at a conference in Dubai could add to further downward pressure on prices, which have already fallen more than 45pc since June. Brent crude – a global benchmark comprised of high-quality oil from 15 North Sea fields – closed last week at a new five-and-a-half-year low under $62 per barrel. A slump in prices to levels around $40 per barrel would be a boost for parts of the UK economy and could see petrol prices drop close to £1 per litre providing relief to motorists. However, the slump will also threaten thousands of jobs in Britain’s petroleum industry and according to Wood Mackenzie place around £55bn worth of oil projects in the North Sea and Europe at risk of cancellation.

Zero Hedge: By letting oil go to $40/bbl, OPEC not only confirms that the once mighty cartel is essentially non-existant and has been replaced by the veto vote of the lowest-cost exporters (again, sorry Maduro), but that all those energy hedge funds (and not only) who hoped that by allowing margin calls to go straight to voicemail on Friday afternoon, their troubles would go away because of some magical intervention by OPEC over the weekend, are about to have a very unpleasant Monday, now that the next oil price bogey has been set: $40 per barrell. Luckily, this will be so “unambiguously good” for the US consumer, it should surely offset the epic capex destruction that is about to be unleashed on America’s shale patch, in junk bond hedge funds around the globe, and as millions of high-paying jobs created as a result of the shale miracle are pink slipped.

Tyler Durden: Following Friday’s US weakness and UAE’s hint that $40 oil is coming next, the crude carnage continues as Middle East markets are crashing. As WSJ reports, the bearish direction of oil prices again spooked investors in Dubai where the DFM General Index finished down 7.6%, extending Thursday’s 7.4% rout. The bloodbath extended across the entire region with Abu Dhabi down 3.6%, Qatar slid 5.9%, Kuwait fell 2.9%, and Saudi Arabia’s market, the largest bourse in the region, retreated 3.3%. As one analyst warned: “the severity of this decline could very well be explained by investors covering margin calls as leverage was used on the way up over the past year.”

Zero Hedge: As we noted previously, counterparty risk concerns (and thus financial system fragility) are starting to rear their ugly heads. In the mid 2000s, it was massive one-way levered bets on “house prices will never go down again.” When the cracks started to appear, the mark-to-market losses in derivatives led to forced liquidations and snowballed systemically. In the mid 2010s, it is massively levered one-way asymmetric bets on “commodity prices [oil] will never go down again.” Meet WTI-structured-notes… the transmission mechanism for oil-price-shocks blowing up the financial system. Because nothing says exuberant ignorance like limited upside, unlimited downside OTC (illiquid) derivatives. Here’s BNP Paribas’ 1-Yr WTI-linked notes that collapse if oil drops below $70. All of these “notes” are simply bundles of risk-free bonds subsidized by written derivative premiums on oil-prices – and sold to greater-fool yield-reaching muppet investors around the world who never saw a short-term trend they did not extrapolate - the question is – who is on the other side of all these notes? Especially now that capital is actually being eroded instead of simply less gains. The snowball is starting (which explains why bank credit spreads have started to bleed higher). We are still trying to size this market but its complexity and recent issuance suggest it is anything but “contained.”

Tyler Durden: For the first time on record, HY Energy OAS has broken above 1000bps – signifying dramatic systemic business risk in that sector (despite a modest rebound today in crude prices). The energy sector is entirely frozen out of the credit markets at this point with desk chatter that there is no bid for this distressed debt at all and air-pockets appear everywhere as each new trade reprices the entire sector. The broad high-yield ‘yield’ and ‘spread’ markets are now under significant pressure – both pushing to the cycle’s worst levels. DS: The losers are now trapped in collapsing energy paper with the very real risk of these assets becoming worthless and forcing the sale of other assets to cover margin calls. One energy company has already folded, and others will likely follow. TPTB drove down PMs today to make them unattractive as safe havens for money fleeing collapsing markets. IMO, those that can get out will go into bonds, because the yields are still largely holding in the AAA bonds. This money is being herded into bonds that will be collapsed while at the same time the elites are positioned short on the bonds in offshore hedge funds. This action will probably eventually lead to the collapse of Europe. They will be followed by the US markets 2-3 weeks later.

Zero Hedge: More bloodbathery. Wherever we look today, things are not going well. While we have become used to day after day of Oil Producers’ FX collapsing, today we see the tumble in Emerging Market FX rates begin to accelerate in a very Taper-Tantrum-esque manner. While the Ruble at 64 is grabbing headlines, Turkish Lira is utterly collapsing along with Indonesia and India overnight.

Tyler Durden: “Draghi appears set to leave Frankfurt and return to his native Italy the first chance he gets.” Has the former Bank of Italy exec and Goldman employee had enough of fighting Germany tooth and nail over every proposal, if mostly for dramatic media consumption? “Impossible” most would say, and yet… [Draghi’s departure] could be as soon as January, depending on a variety of circumstances in Frankfurt and Rome, according to well-placed sources who include a prominent private investor and a senior journalist in Rome. “Draghi wants out, fed up and stymied by Berlin,” one of these sources wrote in a note just before the weekend. In a subsequent message: “I am hearing from several [official] sources that he is entirely fed up with the monetary politics he confronts.” To be sure, a far greater black swan to the market than even crude hitting $40 would be Draghi saying sayonara to Frankfurt and effectively admitting defeat at the hands of Weidmann, and the rest of the sound money advocates. It would also lead to a full-on market cataclysm, “no bid” peripheral bonds, and limit down equity futures.

Zero Hedge: in one of the lowest turnout elections in recent years (due to heavy snow: where have we heard that before) the ruling party of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the LDP, is set for a landslide victory in the lower house elections today, according to exit polls. Here is Bloomberg with the details:
JAPAN RULING LDP PARTY WINS 275-306 SEATS: NHK EXIT POLL
JUNIOR COALITION PARTNER KOMEITO WINS 31-36 SEATS: NHK POLL
JAPAN OPPOSITION DPJ WINS 61-87 SEATS: NHK EXIT POLL
JAPAN INNOVATION PARTY WINS 30-48 SEATS: NHK EXIT POLL
JAPAN COMMUNIST PARTY WINS 18-24 SEATS: NHK EXIT POLL
JAPAN RULING COALITION SET TO WIN 2/3 MAJORITY, NHK EXIT POLL
TURNOUT PROJECTED AT BETWEEN 51.7% AND 52.9%
The following observation from AP is spot on: “Despite weakening popularity ratings, a recession and messy campaign finance scandals, the Liberal Democrats were virtually certain to triumph thanks to voter apathy and a weak opposition.“ And there you have it: the apathetic Japanese people have spoken, or rather chosen not to. As a result, when the entire Japanese house of Ponzi cards comes crashing down for the final time, they will have nobody but themselves to blame. Which, incidentally, is the case in every other “developed” nation.

Tyler Durden: The Sydney hostage standoff at the Lindt chocolate store on Martin Place continues well into its 13th hour, where the latest news is that five people have escaped with others still held inside as neighboring blocks remain locked down, authorities said ABC reports. The first three people who fled sprinted out of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe about six hours into the standoff, while two women wearing aprons frantically ran from a side exit and into the arms of heavily-armed SWAT team police officers waiting outside. The armed man also demanded the delivery of an Islamic State (IS) flag and a conversation with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. DS: Those escapees were very lucky they were not used as target practice by gunslingers looking for notches on the stocks of their M-16s.

Zero Hedge: both China and Russia dumped US Treasurys in October, some $14 billion and $10 billion, respectively, in the process sending China’s total Treasury holdings to just $1,253 billion, the lowest since February 2013 and just $30 billion more than the TSYs held by America’s second largest (offshore) creditor, Japan. This happens even as Belgium which many have said is a proxy for Chinese bond purchases, also saw its total holdings decline by $5 billion to $348 billion.

Tyler Durden: Following the biggest rout to the Ruble in ages, Russia – unlike Mario Draghi – instead of talking the talk decided to walk the bazooka walk and shocked all those long the USDRUB by unleashing an emergency rate hike (at 1 am in the morning) from the recently raised interest rate of 10.50% to… hold on to your hats… 17.00%, a 650 bps increase!

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Michael Snyder (EndOfTheAmericanDream): We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and as a society we have become exceedingly dependent on the technology that we have surrounded ourselves with. If something were to happen which would force us to live like our grandparents and great-grandparents did, most of us would be in a tremendous amount of trouble. And as our technology has advanced, so has the potential that this technology will be used for war and destruction. There is great evil in the heart of man, and the potential to hurt others with that evil has never been greater. And of course there are always other “black swan events” to be concerned about as well. The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it…Ebola has kind of fallen out of the news in the United States, but the virus is still spreading like wildfire over in Sierra Leone. But of potentially even greater concern is what could happen if someone started releasing a weaponized form of Ebola, Smallpox or the Marburg virus in our major cities. A bioweapon can be a brutally efficient killer. It spreads silently and invisibly, and a full-blown pandemic could ultimately kill hundreds of millions of people. And every single day, our ability to manipulate these bugs grows. Many believe that it is only a matter of time before these types of weapons are used as instruments of terror. When that era arrives, all of our lives will change forever.

Greg Hunter (USAWatchdog.com)Economist Harry Dent says falling oil prices will be a trigger for another economic calamity. Dent explains, “Normally, oil prices falling in a good economy like the 80’s and 90’s, where we have falling inflation and booming productivity and good demographic trends, this would be a good thing. It is a good thing for consumers and businesses, but it is a bad thing for financial markets and our whole debt structure. We have the greatest debt bubble in history. It’s the greatest asset bubble in history, including stocks, commodities, real estate and everything. The last time this bubble burst was in 2008 because of the subprime crises. A small tranche of loans went bad, and it triggered a whole debt crisis . . . that’s what I see. I see a fracking bubble here. What’s happened is because of demographic trends, which we predicted years ago, trends in developed countries are set to slow. It will be aging baby boomers spending less money, very simple to see. In addition to that, you get this fracking revolution with all the low cost money from the Fed stimulus and zero interest rates, and what you have now is we created two million extra barrels of oil a day just out of Texas and North Dakota.”

REUTERS: About 300 Chinese people are fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a Chinese state-run newspaper said on Monday, a rare tally that is likely to fuel worry in China that militants pose a threat to security. China has expressed concern about the rise of Islamic State in the Middle East, nervous about the effect it could have on its Xinjiang region. But it has also shown no sign of wanting to join US efforts to use military force against the group.

Jim Vertuno (AP): Long depicted as the rootin'-tootin' capital of American gun culture, Texas is one of the few states with an outright ban on the open carry of handguns. That could change in 2015, with the Republican-dominated Legislature and Gov.-elect Greg Abbott expected to push for expanded gun rights. "If open carry is good enough for Massachusetts, it's good enough for the state of Texas," Abbott said the day after his election last month. And if Texas, which allows concealed handguns, embraces open carry - rolling back a 140-year ban - it would be the largest state to have done so. Open carry drew wide support in the 2014 statewide election, and at least six bills have already been filed for the upcoming session, which starts in January. Abbott has already pledged to sign one into law if sent to his desk.

C. L. Doherty (Natural News): Mainstream media's attention in America to the Ebola crisis in West Africa has long since wandered off, but that doesn't make the crisis any less real for the people living there. As of December 7, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is tracking a total of 17,908 cases of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. 6,373 people have died from contracting the virus, according to the report. Other countries affected by the spread of Ebola include Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the United States, though the outbreaks in these nations are minimal in comparison. Sierra Leone currently has 7,897 cases, and 1,768 people have died there. The CDC's Ebola treatment web page states that currently "no FDA-approved vaccine or medicine (e.g., antiviral drug) is available for Ebola." That is to say, no cure has been found in conventional, corporate medicine. The CDC's best answer is to hope that the virus is detected early, then provide intravenous fluids and electrolyte salts, maintain oxygen levels and blood pressure, and treat other infections when they occur. In layman's terms, keep them watered, fed and comfortable and hope for the best. Ebola continues to spread in West Africa as conventional medicine fails to stem the tide. The situation in West Africa, and especially Sierra Leone, is getting worse. According to a recent report, the eastern district of Kano has been put on a two-week lockdown due to a surge of infections discovered by healthcare workers there. The report, published by Al Jazeera and citing the World Health Organization (WHO), also states that Sierra Leone has now surpassed Liberia as the country most affected by the deadly virus. "[T]he WHO said on Wednesday that it had found bodies piled up at the only hospital in Kono, a district of about 350,000 people bordering Guinea," according to the report. Rowen-Robins Ebola protocol (an oxygen/ozone treatment) provides an apparent cure for Ebola. Ozone therapy can be legally performed in 14 states, including California, New York and Texas, and thousands of people have found relief from a variety of ailments using ozone therapy, yet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the CDC, the WHO and other conventional medical practitioners are unwilling to try ozone therapy in a region of the world where the situation grows more desperate every day. Could it be because it would bring into question the validity of the conventional medical process? Maybe. Or perhaps it's because of the enormous influence that Big Pharma wields over the medical community? The question the conventional medical community must ask: How many lives should be lost before an alternative medicine therapy is given a chance to save lives and prove itself to the medical community at large?
Learn more: https://www.naturalnews.com/047997_Ebola_cure_ozone_therapy_Dr_Rowen.htm...

Bill Weather (Qwakeup.org): This message is for both me, Nomad's ministry, as well as anyone else with ears to hear, to warn us of what is ahead, that the tracks are going to run out soon. The tracks are a prophetic time line, as the future, by its nature, is under construction, yet to see. The tracks of time are running out and the plans we have are going to be cut short due to God wrapping things up here on earth with the troubles to come, after which, will lead into the resurrection and the millennial reign. The concrete walls I kept seeing where warnings of the end as we know it, to come. I could only figure out how to stop the bus when the tracks had ended. This speaks of fear and wishful thinking, of only seeing our hopes and plans for this life, but ending when that time comes. Some people will only see it when the tracks end, but we could however, figure it out ahead of time if we would take head of the warnings to come (the concrete walls). Those who do take heed, can avoid a concrete wall type, emotional crash of their hopes by planning to make the change when the warnings begin. The bus ending at the ocean plateau, is representative of time running out, as the railroad tracks need land to continue on. The house ahead of me, made of rock and camouflaged into the land represents the Lord hiding us in the time of trouble. He is the rock and he will camouflage and protect us if we will move ahead and occupy. The normal country home I saw behind me was representative of the past. Right after looking at that house is when I began to remove the gas of the bus. My taking the gas out to see how much was left, is representative of trying to get back to where I was. The gas is representative of our plans, dreams and hopes in this life, but the gas had turned bad. The fuel of the hope of the plans for this life that we expect to come in steady time, will do little good for the rocky time to come and we will not make it back to where we once were. The gas will have turned bad and the time as we know it, will have run out. https://fortydreamz.blogspot.com/#ww3 dream

****************

Harvey's comments on Monday price action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

Quote:

Gold: $1207.20 down $14.80
Silver: $16.53 down $0.49

In the access market 5:15 pm

Gold $1193.19
Silver $16.18

Friday, Dec 12th Gold and Silver Action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

http//harveyorganblog.com/

Total, Dec (Gold, Silver), Jan (Silver), Feb (Gold) Open Interest

In Silver:

Quote:

Silver OI rose by 1847 contracts from 147,536 up to 149,333 even though silver was down by only $0.04 on Friday. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI fall by 14 contracts down to 383 contracts. We had 0 notices served upon on Friday. Thus we lost 14 contracts or an additional 70,000 oz will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest rose today by 4,551 contracts from 368,521 all the way up to 373,073 with gold down by $3.10 on Friday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 881 contracts for a loss of 163 contracts. We had 1 delivery notice served on Friday so we lost 162 contracts or 16,200 oz of gold that will not stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month rose by 52 contracts up to 473. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI rose to 231,692 contracts for a gain of 1,990 contracts. The estimated volume today was poor at 70,738.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 18,106. The confirmed volume on Friday was fair at 33,982. We had 178 notices filed for 890,000 oz today.

In Gold:

Quote:

The confirmed volume on Friday was also poor at 131,715 even with the help of high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 35 notices filed for 3500 oz.

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:

Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 dealer withdrawal:

Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 4 customer withdrawals:
i) Out of Scotia: 600,134.04 oz only 2 decimals)
ii) Out of Brinks: 20,536.000 oz (0 decimals)
iii) Out of Delaware 60,754.457
iv) Out of CNT: 169,100.91 oz (2 decimals).
Total customer withdrawal 60,317.565 oz.

We had 0 customer deposits:
Total customer deposits: nil oz.

We had 0 adjustments
Total dealer inventory: 64.594 million oz.
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 175.597 million oz.

We had 1 customer withdrawal:
i) out of Brinks: 64.30 oz
Total customer withdrawal: 64.30 oz

We had 1 customer deposit:
i) Into JPMorgan: 16,075.000 oz (500 kilobars) ?? this is becoming one big farce.
We had 0 adjustments

Delivery Notices

In Silver:

Quote:

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 178 contracts for 890,000 oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notice was issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 31 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 35 contracts of which 31 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2856) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (383) minus (the number of notices filed today (178) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2856 contracts x 5000 oz + (383) OI for the November contract month – 178 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,305,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 70,000 oz that will not stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2641) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (846) minus the # gold notices filed today (35) x 100 oz = 348,700 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.

Thus the initial standings:
2641 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (846) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (35) notices served today equals 348,700 oz or 10.846 tonnes
We lost 162 contracts or 16,200 oz that will not stand.

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 863.00, down 2.71%. WTI January crude was 55.41 down 2.40. Brent crude was 60.57 down 1.28. The spread between Brent and WTI was 5.16 up 1.12. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0100 at 2.7500. The 10 year T-Note was up 0.0200 at 2.1200. The dollar was up 0.15 at 88.47. The PPT/Dow was 17180.84 down 99.99. Silver closed at 16.19 down 0.85. The GSR was 73.7183 up 2.0164 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 76.99 down 0.84 (1.08%). March wheat was up 12.50 at 619.000. March corn was up 1.00 at 408.50. February lean hogs were up 0.025 at 83.275. January feeder cattle were down 3.000 at 222.600. March copper was down 0.056 at 2.879. January natural gas was down 0.076 at 3.719. February coal was down 0.42 at 51.68.

~~Harvey 16 Dec 2014

Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): India’s gold imports were over a staggering 150 tonnes in November and have seen a “phenomenal” rise in India according to India’s Trade Secretary, Rajeev Kher. A few weeks ago we said that the death of the Indian gold market was greatly exaggerated. The latest gold import data out of India confirms this. The import restrictions on gold that were imposed on Indians in August of 2013 were lifted at the end of last month. Despite the fact that the restrictions were still in place gold importation in November surged an incredible 571% relative to the same month last year at over 151.58 tonnes. This was an increase of 38 percent from 109.55 tonnes a month earlier, trade ministry data showed on Tuesday. The Indian government had recognised the socially destructive impact of the 80:20 scheme – which obliged importers to export 20% of it’s gold imports before bringing in another shipment – by pushing business into the hands of smugglers and thereby empowering criminality while losing out on the 10% duty currently charged on all gold imports. It had been assumed that, because demand was being met by these “informal” supplies, the relaxing of the 80:20 policy would not have a dramatic impact on gold imports into India. That remains to be seen. Smuggling networks are now well established and arguably could provide cheaper gold than government- sanctioned channels. Taking the longer term view, it must be said that – as a country that imports between 25% and 33% of the global gold supply - India will be well placed when currency wars deepen and the inevitable world-wide monetary reset occurs. DS: I have mentioned this before, but another reason smuggling is not likely to go away soon is that some government officials are heavily involved in smuggling, and they will act to see that their cash cow does not go away.

Suvashree Choudhury and Meenakshi Sharma (Reuters): India will weigh the impact of last month’s easing of gold import rules after inbound shipments jumped 38 percent in November to push its trade deficit to an 18-month high, Trade Secretary Rajeev Kher said today. In a surprise move, the world’s second-biggest gold consumer scrapped a rule for traders to export 20 percent of all gold imports, belying expectations for tighter curbs instead. After the change, gold imports surged to 151.58 tonnes in November, an increase of 38 percent from 109.55 tonnes a month earlier, trade ministry data showed today.

Chris Powell (GATA): Secret central bank interventions are the reason for the withdrawal of a big commodity trading company from the gold market, GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk tells King World News today. The trading company, Turk notes, said it was getting out of the gold business because it could not confirm the origin of the gold it was trading, but the gold likely was central bank gold. “Central planners claim that secrecy is essential so that markets are not disrupted, which is not only misleading but totally spurious,” Turk says. “The disruption to the market process that arises from the interventions of central planners is far worse than what would occur by disclosing to the public what central banks are doing and when they are doing it.”

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 0 notices served for nil oz. Silver Comex registered 5 notices for 25,000 oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.83 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest rose by a considerable 631 contracts with yesterday’s huge fall in price of $0.49. The OI refuses to go down despite raids. Somebody has extremely strong hands and are very patient. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 149,964 contracts. The big December silver OI contract fell by 189 contracts down to 194 contracts. In gold we had a rise in OI with the fall in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $14.80. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 373,254 for a gain of 182 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 801 contracts losing 80 contracts. GOFO rates are positive but decreasing.

Chris Powell (GATA): Finance used to facilitate the productive economy but now, Sprott Asset Management’s John Embry tells King World News, finance runs and expropriates the world and the productive economy is a mere afterthought. Embry adds that since monetary metal mining shares can hardly be given away, the advice from entrepreneur Frank Giustra to buy them now should be taken.

Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): While the West has tried to “isolate” Russia, we will have succeeded only in isolating ourselves and creating the “cause” for a run on our own banking system. I am not talking about the paper Ponzi scheme banking system as this will also fall, I am talking about an old fashioned and REAL run on the bank! This “run” started slowly and ran for years as China accumulated what we foolishly “gave away”. Now, it looks like the “run” is accelerating and the “core four” are taking the attitude “he who panics first panics best”! None of this had to happen but it has and is, simply because the West has done dirty business and ruined credibility. There is absolutely no rationale whatsoever for these banks to ask for their gold back if it is truly safe and they have full and complete faith in the U.S. as custodian and enforcer of the rule of law. Please understand, the “core four” IS Europe. Other than Britain, Europe is supposed to be America’s number one ally. It is obvious allegiances all over the world are changing. It is also obvious what is considered as “important” as far as money and currencies are concerned is also changing, otherwise these countries would accept dollars in lieu of their gold.. The West has bled gold, trust and thus credibility while the East (and new northern Europe partners?) has accumulated gold, trust and thus also credibility. “Power” has always followed gold wherever it went. If gold is leaving London and New York, it is for a very good reason. I believe we may very well see a “Nordic euro” that trades primarily with Russia and China as opposed to the U.S. and Japan. No one has ever run their bank “just for fun”, there has to be a reason. I can see no reason for these four countries to act in unison on this issue unless trust is being questioned and/or a break away from the other deadbeat EU nations is planned …we will see shortly.

For those wondering if the CBR’s intervention in the Russian FX market with its shocking emergency rate hike to 17% overnight calmed things, the answer is yes… for about two minutes. The USDRUB indeed tumbled nearly 10% to 59 and then promptly blew right back out, the Ruble crashing in panic selling and seemingly without any CBR market interventions, and at last check was freefalling through 72 74 76, and sending the Russian stock market plummeting by over 15%. It is so bad, US equity futures which had jumped earlier on hopes of more Chinese intervention following the latest disastrous Chinese PMI print, as well as a French manufacturing PMI beat (don’t laugh), are back to unchanged. The latest rout continues to be driven by the relentless plunge in Brent which also continued crashing overnight to fresh 5 year lows, sliding decidedly under $60 as WTI dropped well under $55 as well. And as we previewed over a month ago, it is not just Russia, but every single petroleum exporting country that is suddenly seeing a currency crisis, and spreading to all EMs with the Indian Rupee weakening the most since 2013, Indonesia lowering the Rupiah’s reference rate by the most on record, and so on. Ironically, this happens as the USDJPY is also crashing and dropping moments ago to 116.25, the lowest level since mid-November. At this rate the Fed will have no choice but to intervene, however in the opposite direction, and admit that despite all its best intentions, the US can not decouple from the rest of the world and a rate hike – so very priced in by everyone – is just not going to happen in the coming years (which sadly means that the latest subprime debt driven “recovery” is about to be called off). Japan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion usa dollars worth of bonds per MONTH or $1.3 trillion.

Zero Hedge: Perhaps the collapse in oil prices does have something to do with demand after all? HSBC’s China’s Manufacturing PMI tumbled to 49.5 (missing expectations of 49.8), its lowest since May (and first contraction). This is the 3rd contractionary print in the last 2 years as HSBC notes “domestic demand slowed considerably,” with only new export orders (to whom we wonder) improving. Employment slipped yet again as did output leaving HSBC no choice but to demand “further monetary easing,” due to “rising disinflationary pressures, which fundamentally reflect weak demand.” Tyler Durden: Russia shocked everyone with an unprecedented rate hike sending the nation’s various interest rates some 650 bps higher. Well, according to the initial sellside responses, as shocking as the move was, it is not nearly enough. Here is Citi: Many market participants are looking at Russia’s hike from 10.5% to 17.0% and saying “wow”. However, speaking with one of our senior RUB traders, the move is likely not aggressive enough for the medium-term. “Hiking the key rate to 17.0% is not enough to get a hold of a currency that can drop 10% in one day,” he says. “On top of that, the FX repo size needs to be much larger than it is at the moment…however, the hike might give RUB a few days of breathing space.” One wonders just which “chatroom” Citi’s FX traders decide what the fair value of the Rub(b)le should be.

Tyler Durden: Dubai’s Financial Market General Index is now down 40% since the peak in oil prices in June this year. For now, only Qatar is clinging to gains year-to-date as the rest of the Middle Eastern equity markets give up 30-60% gains from mid-year and tumble to negative. Dubai and Abu Dhabi alone are down over 8% since Friday. Saudi Arabia is down 7.3% today – the biggest drop in 6 years. Year-to-date, Kuwait is now down almost 20% with only Qatar clinging to gains. DS: one wonders if the cabal is short Dubai and Saudi Arabia's stocks in off-shore hedge funds. It won't be too long until it is the turn of Europe and the US. According to Bill Weather, when Fidel Castro dies, the crash of the US economy will follow in the probably not too distant future. It appears to me that in order for the elites to realize their profit on crashing the bond markets that they will have to pull the plug before 24 Sep 15, which is when the asteroid is projected to hit in the Atlantic and chaos engulfs the world.

Zero Hedge: FT writes that “almost $1 trillion of spending on future oil projects is at risk as a result of the plunge in crude to $60.” The price plunge has shaken the energy industry, throwing some of the majors’ most ambitious plans into doubt and pummeling oil company shares. Projects in challenging frontier regions like the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico are predicated on high oil prices and may not be economic with oil at $60 a barrel — the level Brent was trading at on Monday afternoon. Goldman has examined 400 oil and gasfields around the world, many of which are still awaiting a final investment decision. Its analysis, based on a $70 oil price, shows that fields representing 2.3m b/d of output by 2020 and awaiting a green light have now become uneconomic. That figure rises to 7.5m b/d of production by 2025. The analysis excludes US shale. The bank shows that companies will need to cut costs by up to 30 per cent — for example by forcing suppliers to take steep price cuts — to make these projects profitable at $70 a barrel. In total, the production at risk from such fields adds up to $930bn of investment.

Zero Hedge: This morning’s bounce in stocks off the overnight lows is being entirely ignored by credit markets. US HY Energy spreads just broke 1050bps – record highs, worst than during the 98 crisis. Broad HY spreads have surged wider to 18-month wides. But perhaps most worrisome, investment grade credit spreads are ‘relatively’ underperforming, bursting to 77.5bps – the widest in 14 months.

Bloomberg: More fundamental concerns are building over the outlook for Russia’s economy and the likely policy response,” Neil Shearing, an economist at Capital Economics in London, wrote in a note to clients. “There remains a huge amount of uncertainty at this juncture, but the key point is that there are no benign scenarios. Even if the ruble does stabilize over the coming weeks, the economic crisis facing Russia has much further to run.” Societe Generale is the bank that has the biggest absolute exposure to Russia, at 25 billion euros ($31 billion), according to Citigroup Inc. analysts led by Kinner Lakhani. That’s equivalent to 62 percent of the Paris-based bank’s tangible equity. Raiffeisen has 15 billion euros at risk in Russia, almost twice its tangible equity, and it also has the biggest exposure to Ukraine, with 4.9 billion euros, according to Citigroup. UniCredit, the third European bank strongly invested in the former Soviet Union, has 18 billion euros at stake in Russia, or 40 percent of its tangible book value, Citigroup said.

Dave Kranzler (IRD): This would not include smuggled gold: Via Reuters, the Indian service NewsRise reports (source: Brimelow Gold Jottings): “India provisionally imported more than 200 metric tons of gold in November, the highest-ever in a month so far this fiscal year to Mar. 31, according to initial data collected by the customs department, a senior finance ministry official said today”. There are a few reports – of course never researched or referenced by the financial media – of extremely tight supplies of physical gold. Johnson & Matthey sold its gold and silver refining operations (makes gold/silver bars for investors and Central Banks) to Asahi of Japan. A colleague of mine chatting with a J&M employee last week and was told that there was not much gold available (for input for the refining operations). James Turk said in an interview on King World News that Gunvor, one of the world’s big commodities trading firm, had closed down its precious metals trading less than a year after starting it up. Why? “‘Gunvor executives decided to abandon the precious metals trading business partly because of difficulties in finding steady supplies of gold where the origin could be well documented.’” There’s a massive short squeeze in gold ahead of us. It’s just a question of what will trigger it. Perhaps Putin will get tired of the U.S. taking pot shots at the Russian ruble and exert his nuclear option of squeezing the U.S Government’s fraudulent currency and fraudulent paper gold system.

Zero Hedge: As hard as it is to believe – given the strength of the “Russia-is-doomed” meme – Crude oil prices for Russia (in Rubles) are unchanged since February… This is important as all costs are Ruble denominated while revenues are USD denominated, leaving Russian oil companies’ margins insulated despite the dollar decline in price. In addition, the Russian government is easing the export taxes which further improve the profitability of Russian oil. So as US Shale Oil sector is destroyed by its USD costs, it appears Putin’s core energy industry is somewhat insulated… and America’s late-80s “defeat The Soviet Union” playbook is failing. [DS: Yet with almost the next breath, we get another article from ZH from Mint (Blains Extra Porridge)]: The scale and speed of the current collapse is a magnitude greater, and the effects are accelerated and magnified by the utter absence of liquidity, and by the political stakes at play. Lots of comments about how a Russian crisis might play out and what a cornered Putin may do – or be forced into. Let’s not speculate, but it seems pretty clear that any Western support to calm the crisis and stabilise markets would come at a very high personal cost to Putin. That would be a good point to get selectively involved.

Tyler Durden: In the most ironic twist of all amid the “currency crisis” enveloping Russia, we suspect the world’s central bankers will be looking on jealously as The CBR manages to achieve precisely what The BoJ and The Fed are desperate to achieve. In raising inflation expectations,The FT reports, Russians are hurriedly turning their depreciating Rubles into jewelry, furniture, cars, and apartments as the currency’s collapse prompts a shopping spree that will likely lead to a surge in GDP. As one anxious shopper noted, “none of us know what’s happening. We’re all worried that the currency will keep falling,” and so “it’s time to buy furniture!” And sure enough, shopping centers are currently experiencing a spectacular rush. DS: Russians have seen this before, and they do not need to wait to find out what will happen. Americans and all westerners would be well advised to heed the warning of the Russian experience and buy physical gold and silver while they may yet be had.

Zero Hedge: Congress also unanimously passed the The Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014, which not only expands Russian sanctions (read the details here) but far more importantly, provides “lethal assistance to Ukraine’s military.” And as we explained, passage of this law is just the pretext some Russian legislators needed to push for a full-blown, preemptive military incursion in east-Ukraine. US “lethal aid” will shortly begin arriving in Kiev, which in turn will be just the pretext needed by Sergey Lavrov and the Kremlin to escalate the recent events in Russia as a direct attack by the West, and to demand retaliation against a US president who “does not reason” as the Russian media will appeal to the population in an attempt to “rally round the flag“, and as a result Russian tanks may have no choice but to enter the separatist territories in East Ukraine. What the western, and certainly NATO, response at that point will be, is far beyond our meager prediction skills.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Steve Quayle: With the world on the edge of chaos, gold and silver are now at their most oversold levels in history.

Paul Joseph Watson (Infowars): Alarmed residents who reported low-flying black helicopters with their lights turned off buzzing downtown Dallas last night were witnessing U.S. Special Forces drills intended to allow troops to get a feel for “realistic urban sites”. “Twitter users reported seeing blacked-out helicopters flying in low, close formations with no lights,” reported NBC-DFW. Infowars readers also contacted us to say they had witnessed the choppers. The maneuvers were part of preparedness training for U.S. Special Operations Forces, exercises which will continue for the next two weeks, Dallas police confirmed, adding that the exact locations of the drills would not be disclosed.

Larry Elliott (The Guardian): Clearly, the attempt at “shock and awe” by pushing interest rates up from 10.5% to 17% in one go failed. The rouble ended another turbulent day’s trading below where it started and plumbed new record lows against the dollar. Russia has spent the past nine months fighting an economic war against the west – and Tuesday 16 December was the day that war was lost. An emergency midnight meeting of the central bank. A 6.5 percentage point increase in interest rates. A rouble in free fall. Reports of Muscovites taking their money out of cash machines. This is what a currency crisis looks like.

Dave Hodges (The Common Sense Show): The absolute and complete destruction of the financial system headed our way, is going to manifest in three areas: (1) the theft of retirement accounts, (2) the theft of bank accounts, and (3) false flag(s) distractions to cover the theft of bank accounts and retirement accounts. The events listed above will arrive simultaneously and will be visited upon the American people like a thief in the night. There will no real warning, only a declared bank holiday that will be declared on a Friday late in the afternoon in order to minimize the public's volatility by planning the roll out of the event going into a weekend. There will be no announcement that your retirement accounts have been looted by the bankers; retirees will simply not receive their retirement checks. Your ATM cards will not work and grocery stores will begin to feel the strain through the weekend as some people will begin to see these events for what they are and begin panic buying and shortages will appear almost overnight. This is why America embarked on the 1033 plan to militarize the police because the military and the foreign troops training on our soil cannot be everywhere. This is also why we are seeing such an increased rate of police brutality across the country, because the police are being trained that the American people are the enemy and in this scenario, they are correct. There are three significant moves which have led to the realization that economic collapse is imminent and the above scenario will be acted upon and these include the fact that the banksters have moved to protect their first level minions with survival gear, perceived “uncooperative” banksters have been murdered to keep them quiet which helps to explain the 36 mysterious banksters deaths and the G20 nations have announced they are preparing to steal all privately held bank accounts. Survival kits are to be deliver to every major bank in the United States.

Athena Yenko (IBTimes): Iran's ballistic missiles, radars and satellites against its enemies are all geared up, according to the deputy commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRCG Hossein Salami. The warning comes after the United States announced extended deadline for the Iran nuclear negotiation to July 2015. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei had called for Iran's military to have its military arsenals on the standby, Salami said. He highlighted that Iran's ground-to-ground missiles can hit enemy targets even if they are thousands of kilometres away. These warnings made Israel vulnerable for it only sits 1,600 kilometres from Tehran. The country will also be testing new radar systems and test fire new missiles by January. Its troops are also being trained to launch rocket-propelled grenades. Salami also highlighted that Iran is in possession of ballistic missiles that can hit target as far as 2,000 kilometres - capable of targeting parts of Europe and the Middle East. He further warned that Iran's ballistic missile programmes are not prohibited with the interim nuclear agreement in place. Iran's ballistic missiles can bring "deadly blows of various magnitudes to our enemies," Salami said as quoted by The Washington Free Beacon.

Bill Weather (EconomicCrash2015.blogspot): Here are seven prophetic signs to watch that point to a certain time when some radical prophecies are soon going to come to pass. These signs point to one time and one time only, that time being September of 2015. Our first sign in this prophetic map, comes from the Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, in his #1 best seller, The Harbinger. He shows big stock market crashes come at the end of the Jewish Shemitah, the 7th or Sabbatical year. The next market crash is to come in September of 2015. This 29th of Elul on God's calendar is a very special day. This day, every 7 years, was the last day before the biblical feast of trumpets, and Israel was commanded to cease from all economic activity for what is called a Sabbatical year, or, a year long Sabbath. The second witness of this is from a special, supernatural, God given dream brother Buck Stephens had, where God had shown him this date, September 13th, 2015. This lead him to the same discoveries Rabbi Cahn spells out in the Harbinger, the two biggest stock market loss days in the history of America were exactly 7 years apart and to watch out for that next crash exactly 7 years later, September 13th, 2015. Our 3rd sign to watch for is from an incredible 3 part prophecy, from brother John W Johnston which was given in 1981. Two of the signs have come to pass (the Berlin Wall would fall and Russia would take a severe blow and recover). The third is that after 87 year old Fidel Castro dies, then shall come the collapse of the economic system of the US. If we see the death of Fidel Castro sometime in the spring or summer of 2015, then that would be a very strong sign aligning with the other signs here, to watch out for that summer or end of summer season of time. The 5th sign is that I was given 777 in October of 2015. Seven is the complete, fullness, or cutting-off number. Seven years from October 2008 is Sep-Oct 2015. Our 5th sign to watch for is the blood red moons. Now the amazing thing about these 4 blood red moons is that they fall on the exact dates of Passover and the last great day, or what is called Sukkot, two major biblical feasts found on Gods scriptural calendar year. The last feast (Sukkot) is 28 Sep 15. Our 6th sign to watch is the prophecy of Saint Malachy of the last pope. In the 12th century Saint Malachy fell into a trance and propheisied of 112 popes to come, with the last one being Peter the Roman, the present Pope, Pope Francis, the last part of whose given name (Giovanni Di Petro Bernadone) means Peter, the Roman! The 7th sign is that right before WWIII and the Russians and Chinese invade, there will be a rebellion in the middle of the country.

Psalms 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good.
2 The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
4 ¶Do all the workers of wickedness not know, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon the Lord?
5 There they are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation.
6 You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted, But the LORD is his refuge.
7 ¶Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores His captive people, Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.

****************

Harvey's comments on Tuesday price action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

Quote:

Gold: $1193.90 down $13.30
Silver: $15.72 down $0.81

In the access market 5:15 pm

Gold $1196.10
Silver $15.72

Monday, Dec 15th Gold and Silver Action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

http//harveyorganblog.com/

Total, Dec (Gold, Silver), Jan (Silver), Feb (Gold) Open Interest

In Silver:

Quote:

Silver OI rose by 631 contracts from 149,333 up to 149,964 even though silver was down by $0.49 on yesterday. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI fall by 189 contracts down to 194 contracts. We had 178 notices served upon on yesterday. Thus we lost 11 contracts or an additional 55,000 oz will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest rose today by 182 contracts from 373,072 all the way up to 373,254 with gold down by $14.80 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 801 contracts for a loss of 80 contracts. We had 35 delivery notice served yesterday so we lost 45 contracts or 4500 oz of gold that will not stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 31 contracts down to 442. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell to 231,650 contracts for a loss of 42 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was fair at 33,809. The confirmed volume yesterday was good at 45,816. We had 5 notices filed for 25,000 oz today.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 124,893. The confirmed volume yesterday was fair at 157,599 even with the help of high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 0 notices filed for nil oz.

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 dealer withdrawal:
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 1 customer withdrawals:
ii) Out of Brinks: 29,825.62 oz
Total customer withdrawal 29,825.62 oz

We had 0 customer deposits:
Total customer deposits: nil oz
We had 0 adjustments
Total dealer inventory: 64.594 million oz.
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 175.567 million oz.

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 5 contracts for 25,000 oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notice was issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 0 contracts of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2861) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (194) minus (the number of notices filed today (5) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.

Thus: 2861 contracts x 5000 oz + (194) OI for the November contract month – 5 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,250,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 55,000 oz that will not stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2641) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (801) minus the # gold notices filed today (0) x 100 oz = 344,200 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.
Thus the initial standings:
2641 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (801) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (0) notices served today equals 344,200 oz or 10.706 tonnes.
We lost 45 contracts or 4500 oz that will not stand.

Total dealer inventory: 737,866.946 oz or 22.95 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.922 million oz. (246.418) tonnes)
Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 57 tonnes have been net transferred out. We will be watching this closely!

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 838.00, down 0.83%. WTI January crude was 55.40 down 0.01. Brent crude was 59.86 down 0.71. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.46 down 0.70. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0500 at 2.7000. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0500 at 2.0700. The dollar was down 0.54 at 87.93. The PPT/Dow was 17068.87 down 111.97. Silver closed at 15.72 down 0.47. The GSR was 76.0178 up 2.2995 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 74.69 down 2.30 (2.99%). March wheat was up 4.25 at 623.250. March corn was down 2.50 at 406.00. February lean hogs were down 1.600 at 81.675. January feeder cattle were down 3.000 at 219.600. March copper was down 0.021 at 2.859. January natural gas was down 0.100 at 3.619. February coal was down 0.01 at 51.67.

~~Harvey 17 Dec 2014

Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): Russia’s currency market witnessed further huge volatility again today. The finance ministry said it would start selling foreign exchange which are primarily in dollars. This appeared to reduce selling pressure on the battered rouble. The fall of the rouble this year has been severe, with a 50 percent fall against the dollar and of course gold this year. The slide has been precipitous as in the past two days alone, it fell about 20 percent against the dollar and gold. On Monday, the ruble fell 10% against the dollar and gold followed by another crash of 11% on Tuesday, despite a massive rate hike. The heavy selling pressure this week, made the central bank sharply increase its key interest rate by an unexpected 6.5 percent or 650 basis points. The move did little to buttress the currency in the short term as speculators and traders continued to sell the rouble. Momentum is clearly down and computer driven markets and increasing dominance of algorithmic or black box trading is exacerbating the rouble’s short term weakness. However, the sharp increase in interest rates and the fact that the fundamentals of the Russian economy remain reasonably sound and not much worse than many western economies, will support the rouble. It is likely to stabilise at these levels and recover in the coming months. It is also important to note that political and economic relations between Russia and China are very good at the moment and China would likely provide financial assistance – if indeed that is needed.

Bloomberg: If the world’s fifth largest trader of commodities has chosen to outright not trade gold, and thus not generate value for its shareholders over risks and fears that another, or two, or three, or a countless number of other prior “owners” may come knocking one day and demanding delivery of gold whose origin could not be documented by its trading intermediaries, and whose ownership link Gunvor is unable to trace, then just what on earth is really going on with the world’s physical gold inventory (here’s looking at you, Chinese gold-backed Commodity Funding Deals), and just what is the catalyst that will unleash what is essentially the infamous US mortgage robosigning scandal onto the gold arena, at which point owners of gold realize the gold they thought they owned, even if held safely in a deposit box deep in a gold vault in a safe offshore location, in reality “belongs” to someone else?

Debarati Roy (Bloomberg News): Russia’s cash pile has dropped to a five-year low as its central bank spent more than $80 billion trying to slow the ruble’s retreat. The currency’s collapse combined with more than a 40 percent tumble in oil prices this year is robbing Russia of the hard currency it needs in the face of sanctions imposed after President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea. A fall in gold prices signals that traders are betting that the country will tap its reserves. DS: This is Bloomberg, an Illuminati company, talking. Russia knows what's coming and probably selling gold is the last thing on its mind. This business about traders selling gold in anticipation of Russia selling is pure PR to cover the reign of the machines. Besides, what human is crazy enough to trade against the machines.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 7 notices served for 700 oz. Silver Comex registered 72 notices for 360,000 oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 247.02 tonnes for a loss of 56 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest rose by 235 contracts despite yesterday’s huge fall in price of $0.84. The OI refuses to go down despite raids. Somebody has extremely strong hands and are very patient. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 150,199 contracts. The big December silver OI contract fell by 14 contracts down to 180 contracts. In gold we had a slight fall in OI with the huge fall in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $13.30. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 371,743 for a loss of 1511 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 771 contracts losing 30 contracts. Today, we had no change of inventory with respect to gold inventory at the GLD. Inventory stands at 721.56 tonnes. There was no change in silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 341.009 million oz. All GOFO rates moved closer to the negative. The One month GOFO rate moved into negativity with the other others moving closer to backwardation.

Pam Martens (Wall Street on Parade): Citigroup is the Wall Street mega-bank that forced the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999; blew itself up as a result of the repeal in 2008; was propped back up with the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world even though it was insolvent and didn’t qualify for a bailout; has now written its own legislation to deregulate itself; got the president of the United States to lobby for its passage; and received an up vote from both houses of Congress in less than a week. And there is one more thing you should know at the outset about Citigroup: It didn’t just have a hand in bringing the country to its knees in 2008; it was a key participant in the 1929 collapse under the moniker National City Bank. Both the U.S. Senate’s investigation of the collapse of the financial system in 1929 and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that investigated the 2008 collapse cited this bank as a key culprit.

Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): Why did the budget deal just pass in Congress with hugs, kisses and the inclusion of $303 trillion worth of derivatives being “covered” by the FDIC (read; “taxpayer”)? Why did CME expand limits for gold and silver trading to $400 and $12 per day effective next Monday? Why is Russia testing their own clearing alternative to the West’s SWIFT system? Oh, and one more question, is “gold” a part of this clearing alternative? Before you write to tell me “Russia can never demand gold for oil”, please don’t waste your time. It CAN certainly happen! Will Mr. Putin decide on this? I have no idea but if I were in his position, I would certainly go this route. Especially since the Western credit edifice has never been more vulnerable than it is now. A credit “wobble” from a self inflicted oil price implosion would be ironic. I would also do this as a way to move away from the dollar and toward an asset I have been steadily accumulating, gold. I would do this to FORCE a “perestroika” (Russian for “restructuring”) on the West!

Tyler Durden: Just two weeks after Germnay reported that Draghi was facing mutiny and Benoit Coeure was firmly against the ECB undertaking Sovereign QE [ DS: I understand "Sovereign QE" to mean the ECB prints unlimited euros with or without the permission of the Bundesbank ], The WSJ reports today that the very same ECB board member sees a “broad consensus around the table in the governing council that we need to do more to raise inflation and boost the economy.” This of course has been interpreted by the market as meaning sovereign QE though there is no mention of an agreement on what “more” is.

Zero Hedge: After falling for 15 of the last 16 days, the RTS (Russian Stocks) are surging 17% today, extending gains post CBR 7 Measures, the most since October 2008.The Ruble is soaring also – back below 62/USD.

Tyler Durden: unfortunately for the bulls, various falling knife-catchers, and those who hope the Russian situation will stabilize imminently with or without capital controls, it appears things in Russia are about to get a whole lot worse because as the WSJ reports, the next driver of the Russian crisis is likely to come from within the banking system itself because “global banks are curtailing the flow of cash to Russian entities, a response to the ruble’s sharpest selloff since the 1998 financial crisis.” Presenting Russia’s banks: now cut off from the outside world as the second cold war goes nuclear, at least when it comes to the financial system: Such banks as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. this week started rejecting requests from institutional clients to engage in certain ruble-denominated repurchase agreements and other transactions designed to raise cash, according to people familiar with the matter. Bankers and traders say the moves to restrict some ruble transactions have become increasingly widespread among major Western financial institutions this week, even as the same institutions continue to try to profit from the ruble’s wild swings. The moves, which the banks are deploying to protect themselves against further swings in the currency, have the potential to add to the strain on Russia’s financial system. Harvey: The above commentary explains that western banks are cutting off liquidity to Russian entities. The Russians have now introduced their SWIFT system which will bypass the USA dollar. It is interesting that Goldman Sachs cut off all rouble transactions due to the volatility in that currency. They must have been caught in the wrong direction and suffered huge losses:

Angus Roxburgh (Guardian): The west needs to accept a simple fact: that Putin’s response to sanctions is always bizarre. He tends to favour reactions that hit his own people rather than the west. America passed the Magnitsky Act to “punish” those alleged to be responsible for the killing of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, and Putin responded by banning adoptions of Russian orphans by Americans. There is no sign that the killers of Magnitsky suffered in any way; indeed the only official being investigated for the crime was released. The west imposed sanctions on Putin’s “cronies” and Russian banks because of the invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea; and Putin responded by banning the import of western foodstuffs. DS: Roxburgh and legions of westerners with cranial inversion need to accept the simple fact that Russia, China, the US and whoever are conspiring to destroy America. Putin's actions are designed to make Russia self-sufficient while the means to sustain life can still be procured. Cutting off dependencies on foreign sources will help his people when the fit hits the Shan and international commerce ceases. Russia is already having demographic problems with a shrinking population. No nation can be great without its people. Cutting off orphan adoptions sustains Russia's population.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Brandon Smith (Alt-Market): The delusion perpetuated in the mainstream is that the IMF is a U.S.-dominated institution. I have outlined on many occasions why this is false. The IMF like all central banks is dominated by the international corporate banking cartel. Central banks are merely front organizations for globalists, and I am often reminded of the following quote from elitist insider Carroll Quigley when I hear people suggest that central banks are somehow independent from one another or that the Federal Reserve is itself the singular “source” of the world’s economic ills: It must not be felt that these heads of the world’s chief central banks were themselves substantive powers in world finance. They were not. Rather, they were the technicians and agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries, who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down. The substantive financial powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called “international” or “merchant” bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporated private banks. These formed a system of international cooperation and national dominance which was more private, more powerful and more secret than that of their agents in the central banks. No one can now argue against this reality after we have witnessed hard evidence of Goldman Sachs dictating Federal Reserve policy

Michael Snyder (EndOfTheAmericanDream): The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it… 4) This is one that most Americans greatly underestimate. Even though tensions with Russia are extremely high, most of us just assume that “the Cold War is over” and that a nuclear war is virtually impossible. Unfortunately, that is not even close to the truth. The following is an excerpt from my recent article entitled “10 Signs That Russia Is Preparing To Fight (And Win) A Nuclear War With The United States“… Back in 1967, the U.S. military possessed more than 31,000 strategic nuclear warheads. Now, we only have 1,642 deployed, and that number is scheduled to be further reduced to about 1,500. Sadly, reducing the size of our nuclear arsenal by close to 95 percent is not enough for anti-nuke crusader Barack Obama. He has spoken of unilaterally reducing the size of our strategic nuclear arsenal down to just 300 warheads. During this same time period, the Russians have been developing some very impressive stealth delivery systems which have the capability of hitting targets inside the United States within just minutes of an order being issued. This is particularly true of their submarine-launched missiles. The newest Russian subs have the ability to approach our coastlines without us even knowing that they are there. If the Russians came to the conclusion that war with the United States was unavoidable, an overwhelming first strike using submarine-based missiles could potentially take out nearly our entire arsenal before we even knew what hit us. And if the Russians have an anti-ballistic missile system that can intercept the limited number of rockets that we can launch in return, they may be able to escape relatively unscathed. In order for “mutually assured destruction” to work, we have to see the Russian missiles coming and have enough time to order a launch of our own. Thank to emerging technologies, the balance of power has fundamentally shifted. The old way of thinking simply does not apply anymore and the Russians understand this.

Alt-Market on the end game: This is it, folks; this is the endgame right in front of our faces. The year of 2014 is the new 2007, with all the negative potential but 100 times more explosive going into 2015. Our nation has wallowed in slowly degrading financial conditions for years, hidden by fake economic statistics and manipulated stock prices. All of it has been a prelude to a much more frenetic and shocking event. I believe that we will see continued market chaos from now on, with a steep declining trend intermixed with brief but inadequate “dead cat” stock bounces. I expect a hailstorm of geopolitical crises over the next year to provide cover for the shift away from the dollar. Ultimately, the death of the dollar will be hailed in the mainstream as a “good and necessary thing.” They will call it “karma.” They will call it “progress.” They will even call it “decentralization” and a success for the free market. But it will not feel like a positive development for the American public, who will suffer greatly as the dollar crumbles. Only those educated in the underpinnings of shadow banking will understand the whole thing is a charade designed to hide the complete centralization of sovereign economic governance into the hands of the globalists, using the IMF and BIS as “fiscal heroes,” saving the world from a state of economic destruction the elites themselves secretly created. https://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/12-disasters-that-could-bring...

Dan Froomkin (The Intercept): In just a few days, the Army will launch the first of two massive blimps over Maryland, the last gasp of an 18-year-long $2.8-billion Army project intended to use giant airships to defend against cruise missiles. And while the blimps may never stave off a barrage of enemy missiles, their ability to spot and track cars, trucks and boats hundreds of miles away is raising serious privacy concerns. The project is called JLENS – or “Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System.” And you couldn’t come up with a better metaphor for wildly inflated defense contracts, a ponderous Pentagon bureaucracy, and the U.S. surveillance leviathan all in one. Built by the Raytheon Company, the JLENS blimps operate as a pair. One provides omnipresent high-resolution 360-degree radar coverage up to 340 miles in any direction; the other can focus on specific threats and provide targeting information. Technically considered aerostats, since they are tethered to mooring stations, these lighter-than-air vehicles will hover at a height of 10,000 feet just off Interstate 95, about 45 miles northeast of Washington, D.C., and about 20 miles from Baltimore. That means they can watch what’s happening from North Carolina to Boston, or an area the size of Texas. DS: A billion dollars for a blimp. Talk about a cost overrun. Probably there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. My concern is that you only have to shoot down one of them to destroy the whole system. Sounds pretty useless to me.

Bill Weather (Qwakeup.org): Being inside the house of Daniel, the judgment of God, the first scene, being fearful and giving him a good word of blessing to come on this friends house is the word of false prophets and wishful thinking pastors. Because of fear, they are not telling the people all of the word of God to come upon the US. They are preaching a message of blessing and not warning of the judgment and destruction of the empire to come. As my old friend Daniel responded, he was happy to hear that word of blessing. So too, are the people of the churches pleased to get a word of blessing, but it's a false word. It's not the word for the day, by the Spirit. It is judgment that is coming, not prosperity and blessing. In the second scene, the sick and dying Daniel is representative of the judgment that is coming upon a part of the house. That part of the church is going to loose part of it's sight, all it's weight and hair because of the pastors and gatekeepers keeping the MAX, full world of prophecy, from the people. My friend Daniel in the natural is a pretty heavy guy and loosing all that weight represents the church loosing all her esteem with the people, from when the judgment falls and the people begin to see through the uniform prosperity bless me gospel. His deformed eye is the condition of the spiritual eyes of the church of today. Loosing almost all his hair, the church will be loosing her glory and covering when the judgments begin because they did not prepare and believe the word of the Lord through the true prophets and watchmen. When I offered him MAX, this is a dietary supplement I take that the Lord was using to convey the message that the church needs the MAXIMUM word for the day that can save that part of her from the troubles to come. He let's his rain fall on the good and the bad. The Maximum prophetic word needs to be preached on all that is coming upon the US and if the church will begin to take the MAX, and preach the full word of prophecy that is coming upon the US, she will not loose her, eyes, weight and hair, but will be blessed and bare a child who will be the many new believers coming to Jesus through the ALL, the MAX of the prophetic word that needs to be shared of what is going to happen to the US. My friend Daniel's response of the cure of MAX to his cancer, he laying down on the hallway floor and on his stomach with his face down is the church's response to this word. In the dream I told Daniel, "I'm offering you the MAX for free." Thoughts in the dream were in the air between us that the chemo didn't help, so maybe he would try it, but with those thoughts also came a sense of shame for not believing the MAX prophetic word, but intermingled still with unbelief. These are the thoughts of today's church over the maximum prophetic word concerning the destruction of the empire that is coming. That part of the church will not even consider to give the prophetic word, backed by miracles signs and wonders that she claims to believe God gives at times, but does not believe when it comes to the eschatology of the destruction of America. That part of the church will only consider the giving of the MAX word when she is stripped of her esteem, glory and reputation. Much of her will continue in her selective hearing till the destructions begin. https://fortydreamz.blogspot.com/#ww3 dream

Psalms 15:1 O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?
2 He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart.
3 He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
4 In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

****************

Harvey's comments on Wednesday price action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

Quote:

Gold: $1194.30 up $0.90
Silver: $15.89 up $0.17

In the access market 5:15 pm

Gold $1189.00
Silver $15.75

Tuesday, Dec 16th Gold and Silver Action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

http//harveyorganblog.com/

Total, Dec (Gold, Silver), Jan (Silver), Feb (Gold) Open Interest

In Silver:

Quote:

Silver OI rose by 235 contracts from 149,964 up to 150,199 even though silver was down by $0.84 yesterday. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI fall by 14 contracts down to 180 contracts. We had 5 notices served upon on yesterday. Thus we lost 9 contracts or an additional 45,000 oz will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest fell today by 1511 contracts from 373,254 all the way down to 371,743 with gold down by $13.30 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 771 contracts for a loss of 30 contracts. We had 35 delivery notice served yesterday so we gained 5 contracts or 500 oz of gold that will stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month rose by 11 contracts down to 453. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell to 226,492 contracts for a loss of 5158 contracts. The estimated volume today was poor at 72,453.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was awful at 19,346. The confirmed volume yesterday was huge at 81,986. We had 72 notices filed for 360,000 oz today.

In Gold:

Quote:

The confirmed volume yesterday was excellent at 252,290 even with the help of high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 7 notices filed for 700 oz.

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 dealer withdrawal:
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 3 customer withdrawals:
i) Out of CNT: 40,414.11 oz
ii) Out of HSBC: 45,885.770 oz
iii) Out of Scotia: 65,292.800 oz (one decimal)
Total customer withdrawal: 151,592.68 oz

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 72 contracts for 360,000 oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notice was issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 7 contracts of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2933) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (180) minus the number of notices filed today (172) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.

Thus: 2933 contracts x 5000 oz + (180) OI for the November contract month – 72 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,205,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.

We lost 45,000 oz that will not stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2648) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (771) minus the # gold notices filed today (7) x 100 oz = 341,200 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.

Thus the initial standings:
2641 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (771) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (7) notices served today equals 341,200 oz or 10.612 tonnes.
We gained 5 contracts or 500 oz that will stand.

Total dealer inventory: 737,866.946 oz or 22.95 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.942 million oz. (247.02) tonnes)
Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 56 tonnes have been net transferred out.

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 827.00, down 1.31%. WTI January crude was 56.47 up 1.07. Brent crude was 60.60 up 0.74. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.13 down 0.33. The 30 year US Treasury bond was up 0.0500 at 2.7500. The 10 year T-Note was up 0.0800 at 2.1500. The dollar was up 1.16 at 89.09. The PPT/Dow was 17356.87 up 288.00. Silver closed at 15.75 up 0.03. The GSR was 75.4857 down 0.5321 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 76.11 up 1.42 (1.90%). March wheat was up 25.25 at 648.500. March corn was up 2.25 at 408.25. February lean hogs were down 1.200 at 80.475. January feeder cattle were down 3.000 at 216.600. March copper was up 0.012 at 2.871. January natural gas was up 0.083 at 3.702. February coal was down 0.02 at 51.65.

~~Harvey 18 Dec 2014

News and Commentary Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): The “isolation of Russia” idea is one which has been receiving a lot of traction of late. Russia’s recent economic woes have sometimes been covered with barely contained glee despite the hardships that average Russians may have to endure if the rouble continues to collapse … not to mention the inevitable geo-political backlash. So how “isolated” is Russia in reality? Firstly, it is worth pointing out the obvious fact that countries do not have “friends”, just “interests”. Representatives of countries may have good relationships but these are built on expediency – not friendship. So while there may be a great deal of distrust between the major powers of Asia these issues are being overlooked for now because it is expedient. Standards of living across the board have been rising in Asia for twenty years. It is in no countries interest to enter into conflict. By contrast, the west – led by the U.S. – has seen a remarkable fall in living standards over the same period. The bubble, prior to the 2008 crash, was not a golden-age for families as increasingly both parents were forced to work to just afford a roof over their heads. The relationship between Russia and China has morphed with these changes. Russia supplies China with hi-tech military hardware. Russia has negotiated two major natural gas deals with China in the last year. China expects to double it’s gas usage by 2030. So from a Chinese point of view it is certainly expedient to keep Russia on side. China may soon come to Russia’s aid and provide liquidity according to the South China Morning Post: “Russia could fall back on its 150 billion yuan (HK$189.8 billion) currency swap agreement with China if the rouble continues to plunge”. If the swap deal is activated for this purpose, it would mark the first time China is called upon to use its currency to bail out another currency in crisis. The deal was signed by the two central banks in October, when Premier Li Keqiang visited Russia. For the first time in fifty years a country may be bailed out using a currency other than the dollar. This, possibly, paves the way for the Chinese Yuan to assume the role of a global reserve currency.

Jemima Kelly (Reuters): The Swiss franc hit a 28-month trough against the dollar and fell against the euro on Thursday after the Swiss National Bank said it would introduce negative interest rates to stop further currency appreciation. In a surprise statement, the SNB said it would impose an interest rate of -0.25 percent on some large deposits held by investors in Swiss francs, as it seeks to discourage buying of the currency as a safe haven. SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan also confirmed on Thursday that the bank had intervened in foreign exchange markets, in another effort to defend the central bank’s three-year-old cap of 1.20 francs per euro.

Bullion Baron (via Koos Jansen/BullionVault): Two years ago the news was publicly broken on the BullionBaron.com website that 99.9% of Australia’s Gold reserves are stored at the Bank of England in the United Kingdom. Attempts by another blogger, interested in the whereabouts of Australia’s Gold, had been rejected by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) only several months earlier, “The Bank does not publish the location of its gold reserves.” In November 2012, the Austrian Central Bank released the location of their Gold reserves, revealing that 80% resided in the UK, 3% in Switzerland and 17% in Austria. Cue the RBA feeling comfortable to release the location details of Australia’s Gold around 1 month later. Given that the RBA has followed the lead of other countries to release reserve location details, perform audits and release (some) bar list details, it will be interesting to see whether they go further and follow the lead of the many countries now deciding to repatriate some or all of their Gold reserves…However discussions on the RBA audit were already well advanced at that time.

It’s a Mystery (via Koos Jansen blog/IGWT): The United States declared economic war on Russia. It is hard to pinpoint the why of the matter but in this author’s opinion it always comes back to US dollar dominance. Russia has made no secret of its disdain for the global pricing mechanism of oil. The chart below shows what matters in the pricing of oil and it has zero to do with shale miracles or over supply. It is the dollar and only the dollar that matters in the pricing of oil with an exception being an act of nature. Much like the gold market, supply and demand fundamentals are completely ignored as the pricing of gold revolves around the dollar. Countries such as Russia understand fully that this dynamic of dollar dominance leaves them very vulnerable to shocks. The same is true of all resource rich countries. While some of them see the US as an ally and go along with this, Saudi being the obvious one, the Russian’s have made it clear they want change. Make no mistake about it the Russian’s will get the change they desire. The chart below shows the dollar against the Ruble. That chart is an act of economic war as the West has attacked the currency of a sovereign nation for UNECONOMIC reasons. Let me explain the previous sentence. Russian debt to GDP is roughly 14%. Their debt to GDP is pristine. Japan’s is 227%, Greece 175%, Italy 132%, and the US 105%. Now can someone kindly explain why a currency would implode like the Ruble when their financial condition relative to the West and Japan looks like a Ferrari among a bunch of Ford Pintos? You could argue that they are highly dependent on oil. True, but so are other nations and are you certain oil will remain this low for an extended period? And finally in March of this year, Louis Woodhill began a column for Forbes with the following: “How should the U.S. deal with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine? We should do to Russia what Ronald Reagan did to its predecessor, the old Soviet Union. We should drive them into bankruptcy by stabilizing the U.S. dollar.” Simple question…who is we?

Koos Jansen: Putin still accepts US dollars as an intermediate means of payment for oil, but he immediately exchanges all these dollars obtained from the sale of oil and gas for physical gold! In the third quarter the purchases by Russia of physical gold are at an all-time high, record levels. In the third quarter of this year, Russia had purchased an incredible amount of gold in the amount of 55 tons. It’s more than all the central banks of all countries of the world combined (according to official data)! “The world will not be able to survive if oil and gas from Russia is subtracted from the global balance of energy supply”. Thus, the Western world, built on the hegemony of the petrodollar, is in a catastrophic situation. In which it cannot survive without oil and gas supplies from Russia. And Russia is now ready to sell its oil and gas to the West only in exchange for physical gold! The twist of Putin’s game is that the mechanism for the sale of Russian energy to the West only for gold now works regardless of whether the West agrees to pay for Russian oil and gas with its artificially cheap gold, or not. Now Putin sells Russian energy resources in exchange for these US dollars, artificially propped by the efforts of the West. With these dollar proceeds Putin immediately buys gold, artificially devalued against the U.S. dollar by the efforts of the West itself! DS: Not sure I believe the West could not survive without Russian oil. Sounds like a propaganda piece. Since the entire global economic system is controlled by the elites, it is pretty safe to say the economy will do whatever the elites permit it to do. There's plenty of oil if they would let it be produced.

Koos Jansen on China and US Treasury bonds: China recently announced that it will cease to increase its gold and currency reserves denominated in US dollars.Considering the growing trade deficit between the US and China (the current difference is five times in favor of China), then this statement translated from the financial language reads: “China stops selling their goods for dollars”. The world’s media chose not to notice this grandest in the recent monetary historic event . The issue is not that China literally refuses to sell its goods for US dollars. China, of course, will continue to accept US dollars as an intermediate means of payment for its goods. But, having taken dollars, China will immediately get rid of them and replace with something else in the structure of its gold and currency reserves. Otherwise the statement made by the monetary authorities of China loses its meaning: “We are stopping the increase of our gold and currency reserves, denominated in US dollars.” That is,China will no longer buy United States Treasury bonds for dollars earned from trade with any countries, as they did this before. Thus, China will replace all the dollars that it will receive for its goods not only from the US but from all over the world with something else not to increase their gold currency reserves, denominated in US dollars. And here is an interesting question: what will China replace all the trade dollars with? What currency or an asset? Analysis of the current monetary policy of China shows that most likely the dollars coming from trade, or a substantial chunk of them, China will quietly replace and de facto is already replacing with Gold.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 0 notices served for nil oz. Silver Comex registered 0 notices for nil oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 247.02 tonnes for a loss of 56 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest fell by 729 contracts despite yesterday’s rise in price of $0.17. The OI refuses to go down despite raids. Somebody has extremely strong hands and are very patient. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 149,470 contracts. The big December silver OI contract fell by 79 contracts down to 101 contracts. In gold we had a slight rise in OI with the rise in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $0.90. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 373,815 for a gain of 2072 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 764 contracts losing 7 contracts. For the umpteenth time, gold surpassed the $1200 mark only to be repelled back. Gold’s zenith was $1212.00 set at 5 am early this morning and its nadir at $1193.50 at 11 am (well after London’s second fix). I strongly believe that gold at 1200 is very toxic to our bankers with the huge number of derivatives and forwards placed by them. It is useless to analyze trading because the bankers are manipulating gold and silver 24/7 for the entire 5 days of the week. Today, we had no change of inventory with respect to gold inventory at the GLD. Gold inventory stands at 721.56 tonnes. In silver there was no change in inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 341.009 million oz. GOFO is in backwardation, and rates are decreasing.

Zero Hedge: A few days ago, we first reported a rumor that was floating around Wall Street desks, and which, according to some, was the “reason” that gold was being kept lower even as sovereign risk was exploding around the globe. The rumor was that Russia was selling its gold holdings: This led to Bloomberg speculating, and us rhetorically asking, if “Putin’s next step will be to sell gold“. SocGen just reported that the selling may have started: "It appears possible that the Central Bank of Russia has started to sell off some of its gold reserves in December, with some sources reporting that official gold reserves dropped by $4.3 billion in the first week of the month." Of course, it should be noted that SocGen and its “sources” have a conflict: in an indirect way, none other than SocGen is suddenly very interested in Russia stabilizing its economy because as we wrote before, “Russia Contagion Spreads To European Banks : French SocGen, Austrian Raiffeisen Plummet” which also sent SocGen’s default risk higher in recent days. So if all it will take to stabilize the RUB sell off, reduce fears of Russian contagion, and halt the selloff of SocGen stocks is a “source” reporting what may or may not be the case, so be it. In any event, keep a close eye on the next update of Russian official gold holdings: it may well be the next big story of where gold is headed and, if true, an even more important question will be who is Russia selling its gold to. DS: It would be interesting if Russia was merely a proxy for China who was also buying gold hand over fist. If Russia sold its 30,000 tonnes to China, China would truly be in a position to back to yuan with gold.

Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): The U.S. (the West) is facing the greatest potential margin call of all time. The entire system is a margin call waiting to happen. Less than 50% of the population supports a majority of the population. Some un Godly number of people in the U.S. live paycheck to paycheck and have no savings whatsoever. Like I said, we await the biggest margin call of all time. Never forget this, the dollar has value ONLY because the debt underlying has “value”, a margin call will erase this in a panicked heartbeat! When this margin call does come (and it may already be happening as judged by the oil market), “velocity” will turn violently and overnight. The turn in velocity will be a symptom/cause of our currency devaluing. The rush out of dollars and into “stuff” as the Russians are now experiencing will in my opinion be far greater and much more rapid. “Confidence” and “velocity” are inverse of each other. We are currently at the height of confidence and the depths of velocity. Confidence is truly the only piece of chewing gum holding the game together. In the case of Russia, they have big brother China to stand by their side. China has set up currency hubs all over the world, we will soon see why. They also signed two major trade deals with Russia, the capital from these deals can and will be used to steady Russia. Who will steady the U.S.? Our markets have turned schizophrenic, up and down huge amounts on a daily basis. Who will step up to support the U.S.? In fact, if you look at the “direction” of the rest of the world, they seem to be trying to distance themselves from us. By the time this is over, the world will be operating under a New World Order, just not the one American elites have envisioned. In fact, I can see a world where power has shifted along with trading partners and alliances with the U.S. sitting in a self inflicted and isolated corner with a tin cup in hand …and a dunce cap on top!

Zero Hedge: This morning in Europe, the euro is well down , trading now well below the 1.24 level at 1.2309 as Europe reacts to deflation and announcements of massive stimulation and crumbling bourses. In Japan Abe went all in with Abenomics with another round of QE purchasing 80 trillion yen from 70 trillion on Oct 31 and Sunday night won his big election. And now he wishes to give gift cards to poor people in order to spend. The yen continues to trade in yoyo fashion. This morning it continues to exhibit extreme havoc to our yen carry traders as it settled up in Japan by 14 basis points and settling just above the 117 barrier to 117.19 yen to the dollar. This would certainly blow up our yen carry traders with this rapid ascent. The pound is down this morning as it now trades just above the 1.57 level at 1.5714.(very worried about the health of Barclays Bank and the FX/precious metals criminal investigation). The Canadian dollar is down today trading at 1.1641 to the dollar.

Tyler Durden: What a farce. After printing 40.8 in November – a 21 year high – Philly Fed collapsed back to 24.5 (missing expectations of 26.0). New Orders, employment (lowest since April), and the workweek plunged as The Philly Fed notes the survey suggests a slower pace of expansion of the region’s manufacturing sector. Despite plunging oil prices, the prices paid index only fell modestly… on the heels of the PMIs, it appears the “US economy is awesome” meme is coming unglued rapidly.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Pamela Geller (DC Clothesline): Isis ‘executes 150 women for refusing to marry militants’ and buries them in mass graves,” By Heather Saul, The Independent, December 17,2014 (thanks to Lookmann). A statement released by Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights on Tuesday said the militants had attacked women in the western Iraqi province of Al-Anbar before burying them in mass graves in Fallujah. Some of the women killed were pregnant at the time, according to the Anadolu Agency. The executions come after the militant group shot dead at least 50 men, women and children in a tribe massacre in the province last month. The attack against the Al Bu Nimr tribe took place in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of Ramadi, the provincial capital. There, the militant group killed at least 40 men, six women and four children.

ELWOOD MCQUAID (CP Opinion): No one anticipated that the most egregious crimes against Christians would be perpetrated in our lifetime. The evil equals or exceeds that of previous eras. Open Doors USA serves the worldwide persecuted church. Each year it compiles its World Watch List. In no fewer than 50 countries, Christians suffer extreme to moderate persecution. In Nigeria, the Islamic Boko Haram terrorists' brutal abductions and assaults on schools, churches and entire Christian communities have forced even the silent mainstream liberal media to report on them. If the secular media's silence is due to its ideological prejudice or animosity toward Christianity, how does one explain the muteness of the majority of American Christians? Christians should be speaking out because the jihadists who now seem far away proclaim their intent daily for America. There is no better statement on the perils of apathy than that of German Protestant Pastor Martin Niemöller, whose outspoken opposition to Adolf Hitler earned him seven years in a fetid Nazi concentration camp: First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak for me. DS: I have been speaking out for a long time, but the Illuminists control all the levers of power. I have little voice, and it is drowned by the apathy of those lulled into apathy by indolent living.

Prophecy News Watch: Atrocities by the Islamic State (ISIS) are softening the hearts of Muslims to Christianity, and evangelistic techniques and technologies are proving effective, but locally-based missionaries say the main reason for the spike in conversions in the Middle East is simply that former Muslims are finding God is real. In war-torn areas of Syria and Iraq where ISIS is fighting to establish a caliphate, Muslim refugees to neighboring countries, Internally Displaced People and people remaining at home are learning about Christ from native aid workers, podcasts and broadcasts. Tent churches among refugees are sprouting like mushrooms. For people who have suffered such deep loss, seeing that they can pray to a personal God whom they can call Father has been the critical factor. “You can see the tears in their eyes when we pray – that God would care,” said the director of one ministry working in the region. “It’s the connection that makes a huge difference.” Muslims who were previously taught to pray by rote to Allah, who by Koranic definition was unknowable, can feel the difference of having a relationship with God through Christ. “They see that God can give you strength, can heal you,” said the director. “They say that things have changed, that they have a peaceful attitude towards those ‘who have done this to my kids, wife, or husband - I can pray about it and give it to God.’” Former Muslims, who once prayed five times a day as a duty, say they don’t quite know how to describe the difference. "They say, 'Now with our relationship with God, we see a huge difference; something has changed in our life,'” he said. "You can see it on their faces. They say, 'Every time we pray, there’s a difference.'”
Read more at https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/December18/185.html#3Rb7vVXHvTUJM...

Dave Hodges (TheCommonSenseShow): The FBI’s Next Generation Identification project will institute the following: “A comprehensive, centralized, and technologically interoperable biometric database that spans across military and national security agencies, as well as all other state and federal government agencies. Once complete, NGI will strive to centralize whatever biometric data is available on all citizens and noncitizens in the United States and abroad, including information on fingerprints, DNA, iris scans, voice recognition, and facial recognition data captured through digitalized photos, such as U.S. passport photos and REAL ID driver’s licenses. The NGI Interstate Photo System, for instance, aims to aggregate digital photos from not only federal, state, and local law enforcement, but also digital photos from private businesses, social networking sites, government agencies, and foreign and international entities, as well as acquaintances, friends, and family members”. Biometric ID cybersurveillance might be used to assign risk assessment scores and to take action based on those scores“. Professor Hu describes a DHS program known as FAST, which is a DHS tested program and has been described as a “precrime” program. FAST will gather upon complex statistical algorithms that will compile data from multiple databases and will subsequently “predict” future criminal or terrorist acts.

Brian Shilhavy (Health Impact News): s it possible that the day is not far off when if you refuse a mandated vaccine at your place of employment, or refuse a mandated vaccine for your child, that you could come home one day to find your residence quarantined, restricting you from leaving your home or having visitors simply for exercising your right to refuse a medical treatment? There is compelling evidence that this is not some conspiracy prediction of a future Orwellian society, but something that is already in process in the United States of America. Many fear that a person’s choice of accepting or refusing mandatory vaccines could restrict one’s ability to travel in or out of the United States, one’s ability to send their children to school, one’s ability to continue working at their place of employment, or even one’s ability to leave one’s own privately owned home. We have reported many cases of healthcare professionals losing their employment due to refusing the annual flu shot. Even with the CDC announcing that this year’s flu shot was not a good match for current influenza strains, medical facilities are continuing to push forward with mandatory flu vaccines for all employees. For those refusing, their HIPAA right to medical privacy is violated by being required to wear a mask the entire time they are on the job. More about mandatory flu vaccines. Medical professionals are NOT united in endorsing mandatory vaccines however, and some are daring to push back, even though this too is blacked out of the mainstream media. To understand if the government truly does have the authority to quarantine a U.S. citizen against their will, we only need to look at the recent example of nurse Kaci Hickox who returned from West Africa where she had been treating Ebola patients. Kaci Hickox did NOT have Ebola. She was quarantined and confined to a tent with no running water or flushing toilet, against her will, simply because of the fear that she might have Ebola – a fear quite probably fostered by the mainstream media and the medical community. After a huge public outcry, she was eventually released from confinement and allowed to go to her home, where she was quarantined for several weeks. - See more at: https://healthimpactnews.com/2014/are-government-health-authorities-taki...

Michael Snyder (The Economic Collapse Blog): The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it: 5. PARTICLE ACCELERATOR DISASTER--Michael Hanlon considers this one to have a “very low” probability, and I concur. Although our ability to destroy ourselves is growing by leaps and bounds, I believe that any disaster involving the Large Hadron Collider would be a localized event. But as we continue to try to “play God” and build machines like this, we potentially open up gateways and expose ourselves to dangers beyond anything that most of us ever imagined.

Bill Weather (Qwakeup.org): Finally, back to my wife, my sitting down to order ice cream from a computer and fill out a complex application asking for much personal information is the heavy taxing toll it has taken on me says the Lord... and just for some ice cream. You my wife, are too concerned to make friends instead of loving me and serving the poor around you. The food you are serving is for those who do not wish to grow up. You are catering too much to immaturity. I have a cell phone for you, for emergency use, but you have treated it as though the prophecies would never come to pass. You've downgraded my church from a home to an apartment, a shallow commercial place and you do not know me as you aught. You don't spend enough time with me. You're too busy with your social occasions and not deep in prayer with me. You kiss me, but hold back my full embrace. You hold back those who would love me more says the Lord. You are controlling in ways that are for your social agenda. You build with your own wisdom and not with mine. You are institutionalized and set in your ways. I cannot work like I will with such a fixed agenda. Repent! Make me food that is true food, food that I have made for you to eat. Stop processing and sugar coating it! The time of great trouble is at the door. You are not preparing. You are too busy with your ice cream socials and when the time comes, you'll be as the ones who are in the days of Noah, caught so off guard and will become victims instead of being ready as the victors.

Psalms 16:1 Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good besides You."
3 As for the saints who are in the earth, They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied; I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, Nor will I take their names upon my lips.
5 ¶The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
7 ¶I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
8 I have set the LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely.
10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

****************

Harvey's comments on Thursday price action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

Quote:

Gold: $1194.70 up $0.40
Silver: $15.89 unchanged

In the access market 5:15 pm

Gold $1198.50
Silver $15.88

Wednesday, Dec 17th Gold and Silver Action (basis 1:30 PM EST)

http//harveyorganblog.com/

Total, Dec (Gold, Silver), Jan (Silver), Feb (Gold) Open Interest

In Silver:

Quote:

Silver OI fell slightly by 729 contracts from 150,199 down to 149,470 even though silver was up by $0.17 yesterday. We are again losing more short covering from our bankers. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI fall by 79 contracts down to 101 contracts. We had 72 notices served upon on yesterday. Thus we lost 7 contracts or an additional 35,000 oz will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest rose today by 2072 contracts from 371,743 all the way up to 373,815 with gold slightly up by $0.90 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 764 contracts for a loss of 7 contracts. We had 7 delivery notices served yesterday so we neither gained nor lost any contracts standing for the December contract month. The non active January contract month rose by 20 contracts up to 473. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell to 225,547 contracts for a loss of 945 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was awful at 20,894. The confirmed volume yesterday was huge at 51,041. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today. It now seems that most of the volume at the Comex is done off hours.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 88,467. The confirmed volume yesterday was very good at 181,283 although they had help from our high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 0 notices filed for nil oz .

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 dealer withdrawals:
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 1 customer withdrawal:
i) Out of Delaware: 34,082.382 oz
Total customer withdrawal 34,082.382 oz

We had 1 customer deposit:
i) Into Brinks: 50,824.67 oz
Total customer deposits: 50,824.67 oz
We had 0 adjustments.
Total dealer inventory: 64.594 million oz.
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 175.433 million oz.

In Gold Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 dealer transactions.
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 0 dealer deposits:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 1 customer withdrawal
i) Out of Brinks: 1,478.99 oz
Total customer withdrawal: 1,478.99 oz.

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts for nil oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan's dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 0 contracts of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2933) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (101) minus (the number of notices filed today (0) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2933 contracts x 5000 oz + (101) OI for the November contract month – 0 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,170,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 35,000 oz that will not stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2648) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (764) minus the # gold notices filed today (0) x 100 oz = 341,200 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.
Thus the initial standings:
2641 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (764) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (0) notices served today equals 341,200 oz or 10.612 tonnes.
We neither gained nor lost any gold contracts standing today.

Total dealer inventory: 737,866.946 oz or 22.95 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.943 million oz. (247.06) tonnes)
Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 56 tonnes have been net transferred out.

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Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 814.00, down 1.57%. WTI January crude was 55.12 down 1.35. Brent crude was 59.27 down 1.33. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.15 up 0.02. The 30 year US Treasury bond was up 0.0600 at 2.8100. The 10 year T-Note was up 0.0500 at 2.2000. The dollar was up 0.12 at 89.21. The PPT/Dow was 17778.15 up 421.28. Silver closed at 15.88 up 0.13. The GSR was 75.4345 down 0.0512 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 78.40 up 2.29 (3.01%). March wheat was up 6.75 at 655.250. March corn was up 2.75 at 411.00. February lean hogs were up 1.400 at 81.875. January feeder cattle were up 0.475 at 217.075. March copper was down 0.018 at 2.854. January natural gas was down 0.060 at 3.642. February coal was down 0.43 at 51.22.

21 Dec 2014

Ted Butler (Butler Research): Another physical silver related issue that remains overlooked is the deposit/withdrawal pattern of metal in the big silver ETF, SLV, the world's single largest holding of metal. Despite the two best price weeks recently and on higher than normal volume, over that same time a significant amount of silver has been redeemed from the trust; more than 9 million oz. There's no way of me knowing if the metal was physically shipped out of the London warehouses, or stayed in place as a result of a conversion of shares to physical metal ownership, a simple process for those who may be involved. In either event, the reduction in reported metal holdings in SLV is serious food for thought. For one thing, the redemptions in SLV are completely counterintuitive to what normally occurs when prices rise and trading is heavy. Usually, net investment demand increases on strong buying and higher prices, necessitating the deposit of metal to correspond with the increase in new shares created by the investment demand. The best current example is in GLD, the big gold ETF. While the redemption pattern in GLD has been pronounced over the past two years as investors sold on declining gold prices, there have been three straight days of metal deposits into GLD on the recent price strength and higher trading volume. In other words, the deposit pattern in GLD this week was completely normal; whereas the redemptions in SLV on the same or greater price strength and trading volume was as cockeyed as it gets.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (IRD): Manipulating the markets, any market, is supposed to be illegal, but don't count on the bankers going to jail. Dr. Roberts, who has a PhD in economics, thinks, "The big banks, the big Wall Street money, are essentially agents of the government. This is why they don't get prosecuted. This is why they can break all kinds of laws, commit felonies and settle with a fine. This is what we've been watching in the financial arena. When these financial gangsters are caught, instead of being indicted and put on trial, they pay money." How could the Russians retaliate? Dr. Roberts says, "If the Russians wanted to do payback, it's very easy for them. The next time all of these contracts, paper gold contracts, are dumped on the futures market, the Russians need to go and buy them all up, then demand delivery because there is no gold to deliver. The whole system would collapse. So, the Russians could cause a gold squeeze here anytime they want. . . . They would blow the system wide open because they can't make delivery." DS: Yes, the Russians or Chinese or anybody with $2 billion to spend could crash the system tomorrow, and they know it. Because they know it, and don't do it says they have other plans--like nuke the US and invade after a shortlived WWIII?

Zero Hedge: Yesterday, when we reported the latest rumor of Russian gold selling, this time out of SocGen, we said that “it should be noted that SocGen and its “sources” have a conflict: in an indirect way, none other than SocGen is suddenly very interested in Russia stabilizing its economy because as we wrote before, “Russia Contagion Spreads To European Banks : French SocGen, Austrian Raiffeisen Plummet” which also sent SocGen’s default risk higher in recent days. So if all it will take to stabilize the RUB sell off, reduce fears of Russian contagion, and halt the selloff of SocGen stocks is a “source” reporting what may or may not be the case, so be it.” Moments ago, as if to deter further speculation that Russia is indeed converting hard money earned from real resources for fiat paper, the Russian monetary authority made it quite clear, that at least in November, Russia not only did not sell any gold, but in fact bought another 600K ounces in the month of November. RUSSIAN MONETARY GOLD HOLDINGS RISE VS 37.6M ON NOV. 1. RUSSIAN MONETARY GOLD HOLDINGS 38.2M TROY OZ AS OF DEC. 1. Which of course means that the very “Russia is selling” rumors that were so effectively used to keep the price of gold low into the recent risk-flaring episode, were capitalized on by the very same Russia, which we do however know sold some $8 billion in US Treasuries in October bringing its total holdings of US paper to the second lowest since 2008. and which used these same low prices not to sell, but to buy. At the lowest prices possible.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a good delivery day, registering 144 notices served for 14400 oz. Silver Comex registered 0 notices for nil oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 246.96 tonnes for a loss of 56 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest fell by 374 contracts despite yesterday silver was unchanged in price . The OI refuses to go down despite raids. Somebody has extremely strong hands and are very patient. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 149,096 contracts. The big December silver OI contract remained constant at 101 contracts. In gold we had a slight fall in OI with the rise in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $0.40. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 372,834 for a loss of 981 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 740 contracts losing 24 contracts. Gold was in lock down mode for the entire day. the bankers surely did not want gold to advance past the 1200 dollar level. It is useless to analyze trading because the bankers are manipulating gold and silver 24/7 for the entire 5 days of the week. Today, we had a huge addition of gold inventory at the GLD we added 2.99 tonnes/Inventory 724.55 tonnes. There was no change in silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 338.997 million oz. GOFO is negative but increasing. DS: It makes me wonder if some Goldman Sachs trader is sitting at a terminal somewhere grinning fiendishly as he types in GOFO numbers that will absolutely baffle those he considers to be muppets. :-)

Koos Jansen (IGWT): Gold and silver import into India in November was spectacular. According to the DGCIS provisional estimates India imported 148 tonnes of gold, year to date India has imported 745 tonnes, down 3 % y/y. In 2013 the import duty on gold was raised from 4 % to 10 % and the 80/20 rule was implemented – the latter required all importers to re-export 20 % of all gold imported. On November 28, 2014, the 80/20 rule was suspended, nevertheless India imported the largest amount of gold in November since May 2013. Second, I think there has been little obstruction to import gold. the premiums on gold in November averaged a little over 3 %. Strong official import and low premiums tell me there is very little gold smuggled into India. When premiums skyrocketed it meant that gold imports were obstructed by the 10 % import duty, the 80/20 rule and the confusion in paper work that initially was caused by the 80/20 rule. In November India imported 1,254 tonnes of silver – a record as far as my data goes back – year to date total import stands at 6,789 tonnes, up 28 % y/y. India is heading to import approximately 7,406 tonnes in total this year. What’s yearly global silver supply again?

Zero Hedge: Something strange is going on in China. On one hand, as the chart below shows, China’s trade surplus is growing and growing, and just hit record highs. In other words, China is – on paper – receiving record amounts of foreign currencies in exchange for its (mostly) goods exports. That much is clear in the Chinese (record) trade balance. Yet on the other hand, data from Deutsche Bank shows something very peculiar: even as China’s foreign reserves should be rising, they are not only dropping, but just suffered their biggest quarterly drop in the past decade! This validates what the TIC data has shown recently, namely that China has not only not been adding to US Treasury but reduced its TSY holdings to the lowest since February 2013, and that contrary to what some have alleged, China is not using Belgium as an offshore-based conduit for Treasury accumulation. A bigger question is just what is China buying “off the books” to account for this reserve decline, amounting to about $100 billion in Q3, or is this merely due to even more off the books “capital flight” as some has speculated. Or is China indeed actively buying commodities – either as shown here previously for Commodity Funding Deals involving gold or in physical bulk, perhaps to quietly fill up its new Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Jesse Hamilton and Cheyenne Hopkins (Bloomberg News): Banks, adding to their wins in Washington this month, got a reprieve from the Volcker Rule that will let them hold onto billions of dollars in private-equity and hedge-fund investments for at least two more years. The Federal Reserve granted the delay today after banks said selling the stakes quickly might force them to accept discount prices. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has $11.4 billion in private-equity funds, hedge funds and similar investments, while Morgan Stanley has $5 billion, securities filings show. “This is a great holiday present by the Fed,” said Ernest Patrikis, a former Federal Reserve Bank of New York general counsel who is now a partner at White & Case LLP.

Alasdair Macleod (GATA): The U.S. government’s transferring to itself this month liabilities for defaulted derivatives resulting from bank failures is alarming for the haste with which it was enacted, GoldMoney research director Alasdair Macleod writes today. “Instead of a normal consultative procedure allowing the legislators to draft the appropriate clause,” Macleod writes, “the wording was lifted at short notice from a submission by Citibank, which has some $61 trillion worth of derivatives on its own books, with virtually no alterations. Either the insertion was correcting an oversight at the very last minute or, alternatively, it has suddenly become an urgent matter for the too-big-to-fail banks. The coincidence of current market volatility and this hurried legislation cannot be lightly dismissed and suggests it is the latter.”

Paul Craig Roberts on QE (PaulCraigRoberts.org): Allegedly, QE is over, but it is not. The Fed intends to roll over the interest and principle from its bloated $4.5 trillion bond portfolio into purchases of more bonds, and the banks intend to fill in the gaps by using the $2.6 trillion in their cash on deposit with the Fed to purchase bonds. QE has morphed, not ended. The money the Fed paid the banks for bonds will now be used by the banks to support the bond price by purchasing bonds. Normally when massive amounts of debt and money are created the currency collapses, but the dollar has been strengthening. The dollar gains strength from the rigging of the gold price in the futures market. The Federal Reserve’s agents, the bullion banks, print paper futures contracts representing many tonnes of gold and dump them them into the market during periods of light or nonexistent trading. This drives down the gold price despite rising demand for the physical metal. This manipulation is done in order to counteract the effect of the expansion of money and debt on the dollar’s exchange value. A declining dollar price of gold makes the dollar look strong.

Paul Craig Roberts (PCR) on Russia: The greatest harm that is being done to the Russian economy is not due to sanctions and the US attack on the ruble. The greatest harm is being done by Russia’s neoliberal economists. Neoliberal economics is not merely incorrect. It is an ideology that fosters US economic imperialism. By following neoliberal prescriptions, Russian economists are helping Washington’s attack on the Russian economy. Apparently, Putin has been sold, along with his internal enemies, the Atlanticist integrationists, on “free trade globalism.” Globalism destroys the sovereignty of every country except the world reserve currency country that controls the system. As Michael Hudson has shown, neoliberal economics is “junk economics.” But it is also a tool of American financial imperialism, and this makes neoliberal Russian economists tools of American imperialism. The remaining sovereign countries, which excludes all of Europe, are slowly learning that Western economic institutions are deceptive and that placing trust in them is a threat to national sovereignty. Washington intends to subvert Russia and to turn Russia into a vassal state like Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, the UK and Ukraine. If Russia is to survive, Putin must protect Russia from Western economic institutions and Western trained economists. It is too risky for the US to take on Russia militarily. Instead, Washington is using its unique symbiotic relationship with Western financial institutions to attack an incautious Russia that foolishly opened herself to Western financial predation.

DS: PCR says there are other forces in Russia besides Putin, which is interesting. World politics right now are Kabuki theater with the bankers behinds the screen operating the puppets. The Kabuki theater is for the masses to keep them herded in the right direction. Theoretically, the elites could be destroyed if the herd got out of control. What's going on behind the scenes is the US opening its kimono to the Russians and Chinese who have troops on the ground in the US waiting for the appropriate time. The have participated in (and in some cases operated) massive drills simulating civil unrest and terrorist attacks. O is on record saying he would have more flexibility during his second term. He has certainly demonstrated that having reduced our nuclear arsenal by 95% and stripping the Navy of any protection at all from Russian ECM. He has left the carriers very vulnerable to Sunburn and other hypersonic missiles. Further, O's actions have been carefully calculated to do the most damage to the American economy, prestige, morals, and reputation. The Kabuki theater is merely setting up WWIII that was planned at least 150 years ago and probably much longer. There have been plausible reports that Russia planned the collapse of the Soviet Union in order to eventually bring down America. If that is the case, the current Russian economic consolidation is most likely part of the plan. Since governments that failed to play by the central bank rules met untimely ends, such as the governments of Poland and Ferdinand Marcos and Hugo Chavez, Putin would not be in power if he was not a player.

Chris Powell (GATA): The U.S. government’s comprehensive rigging of markets will end, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts said today, when the West is no longer able to deliver gold to Asia. Since Western gold price suppression reduces production by gold mines, Roberts says, it hastens its own end

Zero Hedge: Recently, a Reuters report was released citing ECB sources, stating that in any QE program, officials are looking into making weaker Euro-zone countries face a large cost and take larger risk burdens, the reports further suggest that the ECB could require weaker central banks, such as Greece or Portugal, to make provisions to cover any potential losses from a sovereign bond buying QE program. A step in this direction could help push Germany into accepting a sovereign QE program. However, these comments failed to impact the market and if anything pushed European stocks lower.

Tyler Durden: “Abenomics is not having clear traction across the country,” warned the head of Japan’s auto lobby on Thursday as unexpectedly weak domestic sales revealed – yet again – what an utter disaster government policy is. “We feel a sense of crisis about the fact that cars are actually not selling,” he exclaimed, saying that, as Reuters reports April sales tax hike was only partly to blame for the domestic sales weakness, citing the government’s failure to boost consumption. But, but, but Japanese stocks are up 1000 points in the last 2 days so how can this be?

Zero Hedge: As we wrote in October, if The Oil Plunge Continues, now may be a time to panic for the US shale companies. In retrospect, it was, and with the price of crude now far below mid-October levels, the pain for both Russia and the US shale producers is now quite unbearable (even as Saudi Arabia explained earlier today that the reason for collapsing oil has nothing to do with supply and everything to do with plunging demand. So with great delight we present the latest blowback from Obama’s “brilliant” strategy to cripple Putin: in addition to the default wave about to crush America’s own shale industry, America’s biggest foreign ally and military partner when it comes to “ideologically pure missions of liberation” – the UK, and specifically its North Sea oil industry which according to the BBC is in a “crisis” and according to Robin Allan, chairman of the independent explorers’ association Brindex, the industry was “close to collapse”. he story is the same as in the shale patch, only in the far colder and stormier North Sea: “Almost no new projects in the North Sea are profitable with oil below $60 a barrel, he claims. ‘Everyone is retreating'” “It’s almost impossible to make money at these oil prices“, Mr Allan, who is a director of Premier Oil in addition to chairing Brindex, told the BBC. “It’s a huge crisis. This has happened before, and the industry adapts, but the adaptation is one of slashing people, slashing projects and reducing costs wherever possible, and that’s painful for our staff, painful for companies and painful for the country.” “It’s close to collapse. In terms of new investments – there will be none, everyone is retreating, people are being laid off at most companies this week and in the coming weeks. Budgets for 2015 are being cut by everyone.“ However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “The recent sharp reductions in oil prices are very challenging for companies active in the North Sea. We have seen very little evidence of new projects being canceled or deferred in reaction to lower oil prices.” Which means the real pain is only just starting, first in the UK and soon everywhere else.

Tyler Durden: While no one will be entirely surprised in today’s consequence-less world, the “bombshell” news that Greek Independent MP Pavlos Haikalis claims he was offered EUR 2-3 million in order to vote for Greece’s next President is no less shocking in its exposure. As AP reports, it is the second such claim from the Independent Greeks. Another of the party’s lawmakers claimed last month that someone had approached her with the intention of bribing her. The government immediately jumped into defense mode and dismissed the claims as “badly acted theater” and called for any evidence to be made public. However, as KeepTalkingGreece reports, “sources” from the prosecutor’s office told media that Haikalis did indeed submit footage, and according to latest information, told the briber’s name to the Greek Police. This can only bring Goldman’s worst-case scenario – a Cyprus-style collapse – even closer for Greece.

David Stockman (via Contra Corner blog): Virtually every day there is an eruption of lunacy from one central bank or another somewhere in the world. Today it was the Swiss central bank’s turn, and it didn’t pull any punches with regard to Russian billionaires seeking a safe haven from the ruble-rubble in Moscow or investors from all around its borders fleeing Mario Draghi’s impending euro-trashing campaign. The essence of its action was that your money is not welcome in Switzerland; and if you do bring it, we will extract a rental payment from your deposits. For the time being, that levy amounts to a negative 25 bps on deposits with the Swiss Central bank—-a maneuver that is designed to drive Swiss Libor into the realm of negative interest rates as well. But the more significant implication is that the Swiss are prepared to print endless amounts of their own currency to enforce this utterly unnatural edict on savers and depositors within its borders. Yes, the once and former pillar of monetary rectitude, the SNB, has gone all-in for money printing. Indeed, it now aims to become the BOJ on steroids—-a monetary Godzilla.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Greg Hunter (USA Watchdog): I think the Fed and Congress just signaled that something is seriously wrong, and it’s going to get worse. First off, the Federal Reserve just came out and said that it was going to be “patient” when normalizing the monetary policy. I know Wall Street is jubilant and the stock market spiked on the news, but I think this is really ominous, and it is nothing to be celebrated. To me, that means don’t expect the Fed to raise interest rates anytime soon because the economy is much worse than what they are telling you. Why else would Fed Head Janet Yellen come out and say the Fed was going to keep the easy money policies for a“considerable time.” If we did have a so called “recovery,” wouldn’t you be raising rates and pulling back on the juice? I think the Fed knows the economy will continue to sink, and if it lets off the money printing gasoline, the whole thing tanks. Economist John Williams says, “The great dollar calamity nears.” We are constantly told that the economy is in a so-called “recovery,” and yet, a large percentage of young people in their 20’s and 30’s are forced to live at home. Also, you don’t have a strong economy with nearly 93 million no longer counted in the work force. I think the Fed is scared and also knows the Christmas spending numbers are going to be the first big sign that the U.S. economy has a big problem.

Susan Duclos (ANP): Yesterday Live Free or Die reported here at ANP on an email we received detailing how tremendous orders for MREs by FEMA and the USDA is occurring right now and these are being shipped to underground locations, which ties right in with another recent report of how vanishing money, gold and food is being stored for certain government members and the elite in "Doomsday Lairs." Something is coming... it is big, it is bad, and the US government and other governments across the globe are preparing for it... hopefully you are as well. This is not only happening here in America, articles are coming out now about Africa and how 1 million could be facing a food shortage by March 2015, and Russian food suppliers have halted shipments due to the economic woes they are suffering.... food shortages are being reported on across the globe by the American media, yet they downplay the shortages people are reporting right here in the USA. Famine reports are being seen across the globe. The price of ground beef has hit yet another high and we are warned that there will be an egg shortage, but none of these stories connect the dots, they are reported as separate, individual stories.... the big picture is never brought into focus for those reading. Food being used as a weapon is not a new "theory" as evidenced by this July 2013 article which reminds readers that the 1974 UN World Food Conference set the stage for "Food as a weapon." There were several measures that Kissinger advocated to deal with this alleged threat, most prominently, birth control and related population-reduction programs. He also warned that "population growth rates are likely to increase appreciably before they begin to decline," even if such measures were adopted. A second measure was curtailing food supplies to targeted states, in part to force compliance with birth control policies: "There is also some established precedent for taking account of family planning performance in appraisal of assistance requirements by AID [U.S. Agency for International Development] and consultative groups. Since population growth is a major determinant of increases in food demand, allocation of scarce PL 480 resources should take account of what steps a country is taking in population control as well as food production. In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion."

KPax.com: By next spring, the U.S. Air Force hopes it will have the clearance needed to conduct expanded training and war games in an enormous military training area called the Powder River Training Complex. The complex spans 20 million acres in the four states of Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and affects 39 airports. "This is going to create a huge inconvenience for any corporate airplanes that transition in and out of the airspace," said Roger Meggers, manager of the airport in Baker in southeast Montana. Fallon County Commissioner Steve Baldwin agrees: "We're not adverse to our military, but the impacts to our community and on our neighbors in North Dakota, it's going to be devastating economically." Leading the fight for the general aviation industry is the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA). "We very much respect the military's need to train, but we also recognize the potential economic impact and the importance of keeping civil aviation safe, especially in the heavily impacted airspace of Montana," said Melissa Rudinger, AOPA Vice President of Government Affairs. Rudinger said AOPA is very concerned that the Air Force has chosen not to make accommodations for general aviation operators in its final environmental impact statement. One of the big concerns is that the Air Force plans to use the complex to conduct full scale war-games. "The Air Force has proposed large force exercises for this area, and in that situation they will close the entire airspace for up to 10 days a year," Meggers said. "When that's in place, they'll be bringing in airplanes from all over the U.S., and possibly the world. It will be full-scale war-games going on 10 days a year."

Reuters: The death toll from Ebola in the three worst-affected countries in West Africa has risen to 7,373 among 19,031 cases known to date there, the World Health Organization said on Saturday. The latest data, posted overnight on the WHO website, reflected nearly 500 new deaths from the worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since previous WHO figures were issued on Dec. 17. Sierra Leone accounts for the most cases, 8,759, against 7,819 for Liberia. But Sierra Leone's death toll of 2,477 is far less than 3,346 recorded in Liberia, leading some experts to question the credibility of the figures reported by Freetown. Sierra Leone's government this week launched a major operation to contain the epidemic in West Africa's worst-hit country. President Ernest Bai Koroma said on national television that travel between all parts of the country had been restricted as part of "Operation Western Area Surge", and public gatherings would be strictly controlled in the run-up to Christmas. Sierra Leone's leading doctor, Victor Willoughby, died of Ebola on Thursday, hours after the arrival in the country of an experimental drug that could have been used to treat him, the government's chief medical officer said.

Reuters: The death toll from Ebola in the three worst-affected countries in West Africa has risen to 7,373 among 19,031 cases known to date there, the World Health Organization said on Saturday. The latest data, posted overnight on the WHO website, reflected nearly 500 new deaths from the worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since previous WHO figures were issued on Dec. 17. Sierra Leone accounts for the most cases, 8,759, against 7,819 for Liberia. But Sierra Leone's death toll of 2,477 is far less than 3,346 recorded in Liberia, leading some experts to question the credibility of the figures reported by Freetown. Sierra Leone's government this week launched a major operation to contain the epidemic in West Africa's worst-hit country. President Ernest Bai Koroma said on national television that travel between all parts of the country had been restricted as part of "Operation Western Area Surge", and public gatherings would be strictly controlled in the run-up to Christmas. Sierra Leone's leading doctor, Victor Willoughby, died of Ebola on Thursday, hours after the arrival in the country of an experimental drug that could have been used to treat him, the government's chief medical officer said.

Matthew Blake (DailyMail): ISIS is selling human organs harvested from living hostages and its own dead soldiers to fund terror across the Middle East. IS is hiring foreign doctors to harvest organs in hospitals in Iraq and Syria. Doctor in Mosul says new doctors secretly flooding into his hospital. They extract organs from dead IS militants as well as living captives. Organs then fed into global organ trade through Turkey and Saudi Arabia. IS is turning to various sources to fill its $2 million-a-year war chest. They include drug smuggling, people trafficking and oil production. Comes after claims IS are now supplying HALF of Europe's heroin market. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2880815/Blood-money-ISIS-sellin...
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Live Free Or Die (ANP): Hawk warns us that we need to get prepared for WHATEVER might be coming soon including martial law and/or an EMP strike that wipes out 90% of the US population within a year, expanding upon this at the 9 minute mark by giving us more proof of food shortages already being reported here in various locations across America. Warning us that many in America who ARE IN DENIAL may soon ‘perish’ because of that denial, Hawk brings to light a very important lesson that we ALL can learn from, if we REFUSE TO SEE what is REALLY GOING ON, we’ll be SO OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY that we’ll be unable to do anything TO HELP OURSELVES and our families as the clock ticks towards midnight. https://www.allnewspipeline.com/Hawk_Food_Shortages_Starting_Clock_Ticki...

Steve Quayle: Americans have been plundered by Wall Street of a quadrillion dollars. The bankers have effectively wiped out the middle class with 49+ million Americans now on food stamps. Everything everyone owns has been packaged and sold and resold and the depth of the fraud is now being found out. The Fed is having to print money to stay solvent. Steve believes, based on Bernanke's 2002 speech, that the next thing we are going to see is a 40% devaluation in the dollar. [ DS: Lindsey Williams also has been saying that for probably two years.] Bottled water is leaching xenoestrogens into the water and men are drinking it causing their sperm count to go down and causing increased male pattern baldness. Excreted pharmaceuticals and increased soy consumption and vaccines and chemtrails, and these cause men to lose the ability to reproduce. The Hopi Indians said the end of the age has come when the cobwebs cover the sky. Chemtrails contain ethelyne dibromide, barium compounds, different genetic binders and human red blood cells, but people still don't get it and wonder why everyone is sick. The problem in America is the preachers have become soft and effeminate. Jeremiah 51:28 describes the men before Babylon was destroyed by the Medo-Persian empire as having basically become a bunch of women. So few men are willing to stand up now, the women are having to do the man's job. DS: When God is displeased with a people, women and children rule over them.

Michael Snyder (End of the American Dream): The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it. #6: ‘GOD’ REACHES FOR THE OFF-SWITCH. I thought that it was very interesting that Michael Hanlon included this one in his article…Many scientists have pointed out that there is something fishy about our universe. The physical constants – the numbers governing the fundamental forces and masses of nature – seem fine-tuned to allow life of some form to exist. The great physicist Sir Fred Hoyle once wondered if the universe might be a “put-up job”. More recently, the Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom has speculated that our universe may be one of countless “simulations” running in some alien computer, much like a computer game. If so, we have to hope that the beings behind our fake universe are benign – and do not reach for the off-button should we start misbehaving. So could God step in and alter the course of history? Well, it has certainly happened before, and many are convinced that it will happen again. Many Christians believe (myself included) that we are moving into the period of time that the Bible refers to as “the last days”. According to the Scriptures, there has never been a time as horrible as the last days will be, and there never will be a time like it afterwards. Of course the Bible also says that “the last days” will not be the end of the world. But it will be the end of the world as we know it.

Bill Weather (FortyDreamz.Blogspot.com): On 6/6/12, I dreamed I was climbing a mountain with a friend. We were looking for a secret buried within the mountain. We found a room inside the mountain and within this room, was another smaller room where we found all kinds of gold. Some of this gold was in drawers. I found a Santa Claus head made of gold about the size of a 1 oz gold coin. I opened the drawers and found some of the drawers contained real gold and some of them contained fake gold. I then stuffed a small back pack of the gold. My friend with me suddenly had to meet someone right outside the mountain, which then had become a street of suburbia. I took the gold in the back pack and with that, I also had two quart sized milk jugs that were filled with pee. As I left the mountain enclosure and was now in suburbia, I was worried that my friend's friend there was going to discover our secret, so I played it cool and didn't let him in on what we had discovered. They then drove away in a car. I then went to a house and began to pour out the pee in the milk jugs out onto the ground. I then watered down the ground where I had poured the pee out. The mountain we were climbing was the mountain of hidden knowledge. Within this mountain, is true gold and false gold, true knowledge and false knowledge. My wanting to hide the knowledge of the true gold location from my friend's friend speaks of those who do not seek. They will not find and are not worthy of the true gold. My pouring out the pee, the false knowledge, is a cleansing of what I had falsely believed. Watering the ground down afterwards is a continuation of purging myself of what was the former false knowledge and cleansing my mind with the purity of God's word. All the while, I continued to have the small back pack of true gold. By this, we should not give up when we are deceived by the fool's gold, but learn to separate the false gold from the true gold.

Psalms 15:1 A psalm of David. LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?
2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart
3 and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman,
4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts,
5 who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

Silver OI fell slightly by 374 contracts from 149,470 down to 149,096 even though silver was unchanged yesterday. We are again losing more short covering from our bankers. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI remain constant at 101 contracts. We had 0 notices served upon on yesterday. Thus we neither gained nor lost any silver contracts standing to delivery in the December contract month.

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The total gold Comex open interest fell slightly today by 981 contracts from 373,815 all the way down to 372,834 with gold slightly up by $0.40 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 740 contracts for a loss of 24 contracts. We had 0 delivery notices served yesterday so we lost another 24 contracts or 2400 oz will not stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 6 contracts down to 467. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell to 223,253 contracts for a loss of 2294 contracts. The estimated volume today was poor at 39,800.

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In Silver:

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The estimated volume today was simply awful at 11,257. The confirmed volume yesterday was fair at 35,560. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today. It now seems that most of the volume at the Comex is done off hours.

In Gold:

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The confirmed volume yesterday was fair at 146,777 although they had help from our high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 144 notices filed for 14,400 oz

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 dealer withdrawal:
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 3 customer withdrawals:
i) Out of Delaware: 9,026.543 oz
ii) Out of Brinks: 336,740.16 oz
iii) Out of CNT: 526,585.71 oz
Total customer withdrawal 872,352.413 oz

We had 2 customer deposit:
i) Into CNT: 300,591.22 oz
ii) Into Delaware: 983.3 (one decimal)
Total customer deposits: 301,576.520 oz
We had 0 adjustments
Total dealer inventory: 64.594 million oz.
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 174.862 million oz.

In Gold Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 dealer transactions.
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 0 dealer deposits:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 2 customer withdrawals:
i) Out of Brinks: 3,312.08 oz
ii) Out of Manfra: 96.45 oz
Total customer withdrawal: 3408.53 oz

We had 0 customer deposits:
Total customer deposits; nil oz.

We had 1 adjustment
From the Scotia vault:
32,241.455 oz was adjusted out of the customer and this landed into the dealer account at Scotia.

Delivery Notices

In Silver:

Quote:

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts for nil oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 144 contracts of which 141 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 3 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account (all issuance by Scotia = 144 contracts).

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2933) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (740) minus the # gold notices filed today (144) x 100 oz = 339,000 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.
Thus the initial standings:
2933 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (740) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (144) notices served today equals 339,000 oz or 10.54 tonnes.
We lost 24 contracts or 2400 oz will not stand for delivery in the December contract month.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2933) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (101) minus (the number of notices filed today (0) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2933 contracts x 5000 oz + (101) OI for the November contract month – 0 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,170,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We neither gained nor lost any silver ounces that will stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notice was issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 144 contracts of which 141 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 3 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.(all issuance by Scotia = 144 contracts)

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2933) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (740) minus the # gold notices filed today (144) x 100 oz = 339,000 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.

Thus the initial standings:
2933 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (740) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (144) notices served today equals 339,000 oz or 10.54 tonnes.

We lost 24 contracts or 2400 oz will not stand for delivery in the December contract month.

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 814.00, down 1.57%. WTI February crude was 56.52 up 1.40. Brent crude was 62.10 up 2.83. The spread between Brent and WTI was 5.58 up 1.43. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0400 at 2.7700. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0200 at 2.1800. The dollar was up 0.38 at 89.59. The PPT/Dow was 17804.80 up 26.65. Silver closed at 16.07 up 0.19. The GSR was 74.3124 down 1.1221 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 79.88 up 1.48 (1.89%). March wheat was down 23.00 at 632.250. March corn was down 0.50 at 410.50. February lean hogs were up 0.025 at 81.900. March feeder cattle were up 0.900 at 217.975. March copper was up 0.031 at 2.885. January natural gas was down 0.178 at 3.464. February coal was down 0.67 at 50.55.

~~Harvey 22 Dec 2014

Andrew Hoffman (Miles Franklin):To watch precious metals so blatantly capped whilst the "Dow Jones Propaganda Average" was goosed by an unbelievable "853 points of infamy" between Tuesday morning's lows, and Friday morning's highs was truly galling - particularly when viewing how other markets performed during this period. To wit, when the markets were on the verge of collapse Tuesday morning, the WTI oil price was around its five-year low of $54/bbl.; which, what do you know, was exactly where oil closed Thursday night, with the Dow nearly 800 points higher. As for the CRB Commodity Index itself, it was 1.5% lower Thursday afternoon than Tuesday morning, led lower by base metals such as copper. And thus, the fact that gold and silver, which rocketed higher Tuesday morning due to their timeless safe haven status, were 2% and 5%, lower Thursday afternoon, amidst a veritable blizzard of PM-bullish news, demonstrates just how terrified TPTB were of a spreading financial contagion. Clearly, they had hoped to generate "confidence" with a heavily orchestrated incrementally "hawkish" FOMC statement. However, given the aforementioned "extraneous events" - from collapsing commodities and currencies; to the alarming result of the Greek snap elections; to horrible economic news in the U.S., Japan and Europe; and oh yeah, the "unexpected" Swiss Bank NIRP announcement; TPTB had to settle for the next best thing - i.e., one of history's most blatant stock goosings.

Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): Please remember this and never forget it, when you "deposit" into a bank or broker and place it into a CD or a money market, you ARE LENDING the money to "someone". If you put it into Treasuries, you are lending to the government. If you hold gold in your hand, it is yours. It does not matter who in the world goes broke which includes individuals, corporations or governments. Gold has value because it is no one else's liability and cannot default. It is THIS very truth as the reason why gold does better than all other currencies during a time of default and currency crisis. Under Harry Dent's scenario of deflation, confidence will be at its lowest level. Capital will seek the safest money available in stampede fashion. Dollars have absolutely no traits of being money, they are a currency and a failing one at that!

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 3 notices served for 300 oz. Silver Comex registered 0 notices for nil oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 246.96 tonnes for a loss of 56 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest fell by 996 contracts despite Friday’s silver price rose by 10 cents . The OI refuses to go down despite raids. Somebody has extremely strong hands and are very patient. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 148,101 contracts. The big December silver OI contract remained constant at 101 contracts. In gold we had a slight rise in OI with the rise in price of gold on Friday to the tune of $1.20. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 373,910 for a gain of 1076 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 584 contracts losing 156 contracts. Today, we had no change in gold inventory at the GLD where the inventory remains at 724.55 tonnes. In silver we lost 862,000 oz of silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 338.135 million oz. GOFO rates were mixed. The one-month and three month moved deeper into backwardation. The remaining rates were unchanged or increased.

Koos Jansen (BullionStar): Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) withdrawals in week 50 (December 8 – 12) accounted for 50 tonnes, year to date 1,955 tonnes have been withdrawn. [ Ds: Koos reports the Chinese citizens alone have imported over 50 tonnes THIS WEEK! This year the Chinese have imported almost as much as the entire world produces in a year. This is what we (I) know at this stage. Concluding weekly Chinese wholesale gold demand is at most total SGE withdrawals, at least total SGE withdrawals minus SGEI trading volume. For example, in week 50 total SGE withdrawals accounted for 50,027.5 Kg. Total SGEI trading volume accounted for 6,159 Kg. Meaning Chinese wholesale gold demand was somewhere in between 50,027.5 Kg and 43,868.5 Kg (50,027.5 – 6,159). Year to date Chinese wholesale gold demand is somewhere in between 1,911,230 Kg and 1,955,090 Kg (at least 1,911 tonnes). We can see elevated withdrawals every December and January. Additionally, it’s clear the Chinese rather buy gold when the price is declining than when it’s rising, unlike Western gold investors. This thesis is also supported by the fact SGE premiums often move inverted from the price of gold. Though withdrawals are strong, in my opinion demand is somewhat held back by a rising price of gold in the past few weeks. How withdrawals/demand will develop around New Year is (of course) partially determined by the direction of the price of gold. If the price of gold continues to rise in renminbi I expect it will further dampen Chinese demand around New Year and Lunar Year. Total gold volume traded on the SGE combined with the total gold volume traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) accounted for 1,309 tonnes in week 50. This amount was more than half the gold volume traded on the Comex in the same period (2,507 tonnes). I don’t see a trend of declining volumes on the Comex, but I do see a trend of surging volumes in China, that are now starting to near Comex volumes.

Koos Jansen on German gold repatriation: I know there are many people around the world waiting for gold repatriation news from Deutsche Bundesbank (BuBa) in 2014. I always said BuBa would continue their repatriations in Germany despite many official and unofficial news outlets claiming the opposite. We still have no quantitative news – but this came in 8am CET today (45 mins ago). BuBa´s “gold exec” Mr Thiele said, “Bundesbank has delivered gold to Germany according to plan Also in 2014, Deutsche Bundesbank has brought gold from foreign storage sites to Frankfurt. ‘We are within our plan with our delivery of gold from the Fed and the Banque de France.’. BuBa-executive Carl-Ludwig Thiele told the German Press Agency dpa in Frankfurt.” Peter Boehringer comments: This is really all there is, all we have right now. I would personally call it “non-news” as usual in that Mr Thiele does not give out ANY new info which we did not have before. With the possible exception that Bundesbank now officially says what I said all along throughout the year: The gold repatriation is continuing – albeit not transparent and probably way too slow but with a rate larger than 0 tonnes in 2014…We still do not know exact numbers.Thiele does not seem to have given out tonnages for 2014 (in the press release we only have 2013 numbers which had been known since Dec 2013). Every number below 70-100 tonnes would be shamefully little – and therefore this is exactly the range I am expecting in the final announcement with numbers (due early 2015). So it is business as usual with Bundesbank. Too slow, too little, not transparent: this holds true both for its information policy on gold and for its repatriation efforts!

Harvey's comment on Paul K. Roberts: He claims that Russia is in reality pretty good shape. However, Russia can, if she wishes can bring down the west:
i) by defaulting on bonds owed which would trigger credit default swaps bringing down western banks
ii) buying up all the Russian roubles and then raising the oil price in roubles.
iii)refusing to supply Western Europe of oil:

Harvey on LIBOR manipulation: After two years, the bozos London’s Serious Fraud Squad has opened up an extension of the libor manipulation to include gold and silver. The manipulation of gold and silver is thus the GOFO rates. Friday night, saw the arrest of a Royal Bank of Scotland trader on manipulation of gold and silver. We need to get the evidence from them so we can launch our own class action lawsuits.

RT: Cunning fraudsters have conned the Ukraine Central Bank branch in Odessa into buying $300,000 worth of gold which turned out to be lead daubed with gold paint. “A criminal case has been opened and we are now carrying out an investigation to identify those involved in the crime,” a spokesman for the Odessa police force is quoted by Vesti. The news was first reported by Odessa’s State Ministry of Internal Affairs. A preliminary investigation suggests the gang had someone working for them inside the bank that forged the necessary paperwork to allow the sale of the fake gold bullion. It’s also been discovered that bank staff were not regularly checked when entering or exiting the premises. Since the discovery, the National Bank no longer buys precious metal over the counter, as it cannot be sure of its authenticity, says the First Deputy Head of the National Bank of Ukraine, Aleksandr Pisaruk. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has confirmed the theft of several kilograms of gold in the Odessa region. The cashier involved has apparently fled to Crimea, Vesti Ukraine reports. Criminal proceedings began on November 18, even though the scam apparently took place between August and October. In November, the Central Bank reportedly lost $12.6 billion in gold reserves, putting the total stockpile at just over $120 million. However, the Central Bank reports that foreign currency and gold reserves stood at $9.97 billion at the end of November. DS: Of course, it's possible this story about gold painted lead is true, but it sounds like something that was cooked up to cover the theft of the gold by US agents. I do not believe this story. Zero Hedge adds this remark: There is a potential silver lining here in that whoever ended up getting the bulk of Ukraine’s gold reserves, is now also the proud owner of a few hundreds kilograms of gold-plated lead.

Liam Halligan (The London Telegraph): “Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.” Some say this aphorism has Spanish origins. Others attribute it to Oscar Wilde. Wherever it comes from, as sayings go, this one contains much truth. Getting what you want can indeed have unseen and unpleasant consequences. That’s worth remembering, as we celebrate cheaper oil while watching the Russian rouble plunge. Since midsummer the rouble has largely tracked the decline in global oil prices. Last week everything changed. Crude remained stable but the Russian currency collapsed, losing a third of its dollar value in a day. Responding to “Black Monday,” Russia’s central bank hiked interest rates from 10.5 to 17 percent. … We Westerners can cheer on Russia’s economic problems. We can hope for a full-on currency collapse and rub our hands with glee. If that happens, though, Russia’s next leader could make Putin seem like a softie. We could also provoke a repeat of the systemic global meltdown of 2008 — in which the big Western economies would suffer more than most.

Ron Paul (Ron Paul Institute For Peace and Prosperity): Last week we learned that the key to a strong economy is not increased production, lower unemployment, or a sound monetary unit. Rather, economic prosperity depends on the type of language used by the central bank in its monetary policy statements. All it took was one word in the Federal Reserve Bank’s press release — that the Fed would be “patient” in raising interest rates to normal levels — and stock markets went wild. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had their best gains in years, with the Dow gaining nearly 800 points from Wednesday to Friday and the S&P gaining almost 100 points to close within a few points of its all-time high. Just think of how many trillions of dollars of financial activity that occurred solely because of that one new phrase in the Fed’s statement. That so much in our economy hangs on one word uttered by one institution demonstrates not only that far too much power is given to the Federal Reserve, but also how unbalanced the American economy really is.

Steve St Angelo (SRSRocco): The latest data puts Indian silver imports for 2014 on track to hit 234 million ounces or 28 per cent of the world’s mining output, according to the SRSrocco Report. ‘In October and November India imported twice as much as in January and April, and a great deal more than the following two quarters,’ said its authors. ‘If India imports at least 700 million tonnes in December, then the fourth quarter will be nearly double the amount imported during the second highest quarter, April to June.’ According to the GFMS Silver Interim Report released at the end of last month… ‘demand for silver bars and coins has soared in recent weeks as bargain hunting retail investors returned to the silver market after a disappointing first half of the year. SRSrocco notes: ‘If London was already suffering a drawdown of silver inventories in October from huge Indian demand, how bad is the situation after another 1,254 million tonnes was imported by India in November? How tight is the wholesale silver market now?’

Ye Xie (Bloomberg News): China is stepping up its role as the lender of last resort to some of the world’s most financially strapped countries. Chinese officials signaled Saturday that they are willing to expand a $24 billion currency swap program to help Russia weather the worst economic crisis since the 1998 default. China has provided $2.3 billion in funds to Argentina since October as part of a currency swap, and last month it lent $4 billion to Venezuela, whose reserves cover just two years of debt payments. By lending to countries shut out of overseas capital markets, Chinese President Xi Jinping is bolstering the country’s influence in the global economy and cutting into the International Monetary Fund’s status as the go-to financier for nations in financial distress. While the IMF tends to demand reforms aimed at stabilizing a country’s finances in exchange for loans, analysts speculate that China’s terms are more focused on securing its interests in the resource-rich countries.

Zero Hedge: There are two key events driving overnight risk prices: first, there is the Bloomberg story that “China Offers Russia Help With Currency Swap Suggestion“, which was previously covered extensively here a week ago, but now that the algos have official confirmation that China will back Russia, they have sent the Ruble shorts into a panic short squeeze, with the USDRUB tumbling another 6% as of latest. The other key development pushing oil prices modestly higher again, and Brent touching $63 overnight (if sliding fast since), is yesterday’s speech by Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi who “expressed confidence prices will pick up”, however not due to a drop in supply – because he made it very clear OPEC will never cut output and instead will wait for the high cost producers to exit the game – but amid improved economic growth. Which of course means the plunge in oil had little to do with supply and everything to do with demand, which in turn means the entire narrative has to be uprooted once again, and spun that rising oil prices are now bullisher for the economy than plunging oil prices. Frankly, it’s difficult to keep track of all the constantly changing, relentless spin. And good luck with a surge in demand considering China’s slowdown and its secondary impacts on Brazil and Australia. Finally, there is China, although not its economy but its stock market, which just like the west keeps rising ever higher the worse the economic prospects are.

Tyler Durden: We are sure it’s nothing – since stock markets in China and The US are soaring – but deep, deep down in the heart of the real economies, there is a problem. The Baltic Dry Index has fallen for 21 straight days, tumbling around 40% since Thanksgiving Day. This is the biggest collapse in the ‘trade’ indicator (which we should ignore unless it is rising) since records began 28 years ago…As The Index itself hovers very close to the post-crisis lows…

Harvey on Belarus hyperinflation: My goodness, this was fast!! Belarus now in full blown hyperinflation due to the huge fall in the Russian rouble. This illustrates the speed from which hyperinflation can occur. Definition of hyperinflation: when the citizenry lose all confidence in the currency and bid up prices to astronomical levels. All goods disappear rapidly from shelves. In other words, when lack of confidence in their own currency causes huge demand for goods of which those goods are limited in quantity. In an effort to stem the flood of hyperinflating domestic prices, authorities have blocked online stores and news websites to stop the run on banks and shops as people scramble to secure their savings. One of the blocked news websites noted, it “looks like the authorities want to turn light panic over the fall of the Belarussian ruble into a real one,” calling the blockages “December insanity.” The Belarussian ruble has lost about half of its value since the beginning of the year, having been hit hard by the depreciation of the Russian ruble since its economy is heavily dependent on its giant neighbour. With foreign currency swiftly depleted in exchange offices, Belarussians even launched a black market website dollarnash.com where individuals could buy and sell dollars and euros. Belarus has introduced a 30% tax on the purchase of foreign currency.

Zero Hedge: “People should not be worried,” explained Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in a TV address over the weekend, “we have a plan in place if oil prices are $40 per barrel.” Kazakhstan, the second largest ex-Soviet oil producer after Russia, explains “there are reserves which could support people, preventing living conditions from worsening.” However, if A. Gary Schilling’s reality check of $20 oil being possible comes to fruition, as he explains, what matters are marginal costs – the expense of retrieving oil once the holes have been drilled and pipelines laid. That number is more like $10 to $20 a barrel in the Persian Gulf… We wonder who has a plan for that? In Nigeria, where oil and natural gas account for 80 percent of government revenue and almost all its exports, the naira has fallen 11 percent versus the greenback so far this year.

Harvey on ECB monetization of bonds: The whisper on the street is that the ECB is going to monetize 500 billion euros of sovereign bonds and the purchases will be according to contribution to GDP. That means that Germany which is the front runner as far as GDP is concerned will be the lucky recipient of 130 billion euros purchase or approximately 90% of their issuance.

Tyler Durden: Natural Gas prices are down over 11.5% in the last 2 days, falling to their lowest price since January 2013, as a familiar tale of excess production in the face of ebbing demand looms large. As WSJ reports, BNP Paribas’ Teri Viswanath notes “the delayed return of cold weather has simply curbed all buying interest,”and this was exaggerated by technical selling as the market broke previous support around 3.50. Ironically, given its detrimental impact on GDP, Macquarie points out, “it is increasingly apparent to us that weather will need to bail the market out again this winter – otherwise prices could see material downside during the spring and summer months.”

Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler: The downward manipulation of the prices of precious metals prevents the “crisis warning transmission system” from properly functioning. More important, the decline in the price of gold/silver vs. the U.S. dollar conveys the illusion that the dollar is strong at a time when, in fact, the dollar should be under pressure from the over-issuance of dollars and dollar-denominated debt. What we have been experiencing since the 2008 crisis is not only the subordination of US economic policy to the needs of banks “too big to fail,” but also the subordination of law and the financial regulatory agencies to the interests of a few private banks. The manipulation of the bullion markets is illegal whether done by private parties or on public authority, and so we have the spectacle of the US government supporting a handful of banks via illegal means. Not only has economic accountability been set aside, but also legal accountability. Just as Washington places itself above laws prohibiting torture and naked aggression in order to conduct its self-declared “war on terror” and above the Constitution in order to construct a domestic police state, Washington places itself above the laws prohibiting market manipulation. Obviously, the government’s claim to represent the rule of law is as false as all its other claims. The foul stench of corruption and hypocrisy that emanates from Washington is the smell of a dying country.

Bill Weather (FortyDreamz.blogspot.com): This dream is about the the rebirth of US manufacturing and restoration. It is also a rebuke to the new agers who are keeping the possibility of the resurrection of these jobs dead. The new agers are running the nation. Those of the doctrine of "tolerance" and "diversity" and "unity" at any cost, are perpetuating those principles of globalization and are those new agers who are drowning out the resurrection of Larry's life, who could bring us the rebirth of US manufacturing and along with it, massive amounts of jobs and incredible economic stimuli. Obama and all those political minions on both the left and right are keeping us from these jobs. Both George Bush senior and Bill Clinton and the politicians of their era are the ones who sold us out of the railroad and jobs for a quick buck from China and others. The New World Order in which they started and continue to perpetuate by many of these current politicians are making alot of noise and drowning out the heart beat of the resurrection of getting America back to work again. It is these "new age" principles of dividing the US to unite us with the nations of the world in globalization that is robbing us of US manufacturing jobs and replacing us with slave labor from over seas, for a quick buck, but it's all coming to an end very badly when the prophecies for the US begin to come to pass, one of those being a US revolt that is going to tear this nation apart for our enemies to come in and devour us and it all stems from these new ager elitists in power, and their globalization economic principles. The elitist new agers running the country are to blame because we are operating under their principles of "leveling the playing field" globally when God made us to be separated nations to work out our own business, not the rebuilding of Babylon and a return to one under the corrupt rule of men and their new age principles, without the separation checks put into place that God established to protect us from the their one world, corrupt, globalization rule.

Psalms 16:1 Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good besides You."
3 As for the saints who are in the earth, They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied; I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood, Nor will I take their names upon my lips.
5 ¶The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
7 ¶I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
8 I have set the LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely.
10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Michael Snyder (EndOfTheAmericanDream): The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it… #7: 7. CLIMATE CATASTROPHE--There are a lot of people out there that believe that global warming caused by human activity is the greatest threat that humanity is currently facing. I am not one of those people. The climate has always been changing, and it will always be changing. And the amount of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases” produced by human activity is a negligible percentage of the total. In addition, scientists tell us that there were times in the history of this planet when carbon dioxide levels were far, far greater than they were today. So even if we were to move back in that direction substantially, it would certainly not mean the end of our planet. However, that doesn’t mean that we are not going to see tremendous changes in our weather in the years ahead. The primary driver of climate change, the sun, is behaving very strangely right now. If it continues to behave erratically, that could cause dramatic climate shifts. In addition, the increase in seismic activity that we have been witnessing all over the planet could also greatly affect our climate. Volcanic ash can have a tremendous cooling impact on global weather patterns, and volcanoes that erupt on the ocean floor could potentially cause ocean temperatures to rise substantially. Scientists tell us that if ocean temperatures were to rise far enough, we could see billions of fish dying. If such an event were to occur, a global famine would not be too far behind.

Live Free Or Die (AllNewsPipeline): The President of China, Xi Jinping, has issued a strong warning to his People’s Liberation Army, “Prepare For War!” In this new story excerpted below from The Week we learn that China’s neighbors nearby and as far away as Washington DC have no idea what all this preparation by China is for. Is China preparing to ‘take’ what they feel is “theirs” here in America? The 2nd video below from The Money GPS ~ Author Exposing the Truth tells us that China may be preparing to ‘bail out’ Russia, their new strategic partner leading us to ask if this is all more preparation for WW3 against the US as we see pointed out in the 1st compilation video below of mainstream and alternative media reports over the past several years. From ‘The Week’: China’s leader is telling the People’s Liberation Army to prepare for war. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent statements have been alarming China’s neighbors. What’s behind them? Over the last several months, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have repeatedly exhorted the People’s Liberation Army to “be ready to win a war.” Xi has repeatedly called for greater military modernization, increased training, and enhanced overall readiness of the Chinese army, navy, and air force. These repeated calls have alarmed China’s neighbors from New Delhi to Washington. The question on everyone’s mind: what is all this preparation for? Is the Chinese leadership preparing for something? Are they gearing up for a military operation, or merely the option to carry one out? Or is there a more innocent explanation for all of this?

Live Free Or Die (ANP): Comcast is now reporting Coast to Coast internet outages as reported in the brand new video below from Dahboo777 and as seen in Comcast’s ‘down detector’ map linked here and screenshot below videos. Is this some sort of revenge attack upon America for the US allegedly just kicking North Korea off of the internet as reported in the 2nd video below from Bloomberg Business? Are they preparing to pass an internet censorship bill here in the USA based upon what Christopher Greene and AMTV in the 3rd video are alleging was a false flag attack upon Sony, blamed upon North Korea, in order to crack down upon the internet here in America? Are these attacks more signs they’re getting ready to ‘take it down’?

Live Free Or Die (ANP): With Alex Jones now warning a race war in America may have already begun in the 2nd video, YouTube videographer Jason A gives us more proof of ‘scary’ preparation for something huge in America in 2015 in the 1st video. Meanwhile, the 3rd video is an excellent breakdown of the cowardly assassination of two public servants in New York from Edifying Others, who asks if Barack Obama has now begun a purge against police departments across America, as he did against US military officers, of people who will not support the New World Order agenda.

Zero Hedge: as Sky News reports, an increasing number of Americans seem to think it is danger of falling apart, and they're preparing for the end. "We're not talking about folks walking around wearing tin foil on their heads,; we're not talking about conspiracy theorists. I'm talking about professionals: doctors and lawyers and law enforcement and military. Normal, everyday people. They can't necessarily put their finger on it. But there's something about the uncertainty of our times. They know something isn't quite right."
They call themselves preppers. Mainstream suburban Americans hoarding supplies and weapons while leading otherwise perfectly normal lives. They are afraid of some impending catastrophe but also what that will do to American society. "I think that is what I'm scared of the most," he told Sky News, "Not the actual events. I've already prepared for that. It's the aftermath, when there are no police, there are no military to protect us, we're going to be protecting ourselves." The trigger could be a terrorist attack, a monetary collapse, cataclysmic failure in power generation, or a natural disaster. Preppers fear what comes next and have no faith in either their government or human nature. "Once people use up all their resources, they're going to come after the people that prepared and had more resources. So basically we have to take care of ourselves."

Live Free Or Die: Elite Insider Lindsey Williams drops a monster bombshell in the brand new update in 1st video below from MoneyBags73 that ‘the elite’ are “SO ANGRY at Barack Obama” right now that “words can’t describe it.” With Williams warning just months ago that ‘special events’ were being planned for 2015 as shared in the 2nd video below and 2015 now only DAYS away, Pastor Williams warns “what our President has done could create some major problems. Almost sounds like the beginning of Ezekiel chapters 38-39 in the Bible.” With this recent update from Zero Hedge that even the IMF is now ready to slam the door on the US and the dollar, has Washington just ‘shot itself in the oily foot’ as asked by columnist F. William Engdahl.

Susan Duclos (B4IN): Financial expert Rob Kirby provides an inside look into how “JPMorgan made off with BILLIONS of YOUR dollars”, the banking cabal and their crimes against humanity, and “what the banksters have up their sleeves for 2015 and beyond.” Kirby provides a harsh but accurate glimpse into how we arrived to the point where we are at today and answers questions such as “Will the treasuries blow up, will China, Russia and the other BRICS take break away completely from the Anglo American banking cartel? What role will gold and silver play in the upcoming system?” As the video uploader The Daily Coin.org states in the video details “Buckle up, boys and girls, as the ride is about to begin!”

And now for the wild silver Comex results. Silver OI fell slightly by 996 contracts from 149,096 down to 148,101 even though silver was up 10 cents on Friday. We are again losing more short covering from our bankers. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI remain constant at 101 contracts. We had 0 notices served upon on yesterday. Thus we neither gained nor lost any silver contracts standing to delivery in the December contract month.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest rose today by 1076 contracts from 372,834 all the way up to 373,910 with gold slightly up by $1.20 on Friday (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 584 contracts for a loss of 156 contracts. We had 144 delivery notices served on Friday so we lost another 12 contracts or 1200 oz will not stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month rose by 12 contracts up to 479. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI rose to 223,967 contracts for a gain of 314 contracts. The estimated volume today was poor at 48,993.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was simply awful at 10,339. The confirmed volume on Friday was just as bad at 24,149. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today. It now seems that most of the volume at the Comex is done off hours.

In Gold:

Quote:

The confirmed volume on Friday was also poor at 76,891 even although they had help from our high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 3 notices filed for 300 oz .

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 dealer withdrawal:
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 2 customer withdrawals:
i) Out of Delaware: 9,940.15 oz
ii) Out of Scotia: 174,465.76 oz
Total customer withdrawal 184,405.910 oz.

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts for nil oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 3 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 3 contracts of which 3 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2933) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (101) minus (the number of notices filed today (0) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2933 contracts x 5000 oz + (101) OI for the November contract month – 0 (the number of notices filed today) = 15,170,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We neither gained nor lost any silver ounces that will stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2795) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (584) minus the # gold notices filed today (3) x 100 oz = 339,000 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.

Thus the initial standings:
2793 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (584) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (3) notices served today equals 337,600 oz or 10.50 tonnes.
We lost 12 contracts or 1200 oz will not stand for delivery in the December contract month.

Total dealer inventory: 770,690.631 oz or 23.971 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.939 million oz. (246.96) tonnes)
Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 56 tonnes have been net transferred out. We will be watching this closely!

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 794.00, down 1.12%. WTI February crude was 55.49 down 1.03. Brent crude was 60.11 down 1.99. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.62 down 0.96. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0200 at 2.7500. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0200 at 2.1600. The dollar was up 0.16 at 89.75. The PPT/Dow was 17959.44 up 154.64. Silver closed at 15.68 down 0.39. The GSR was 75.0446 up 0.7322 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 81.45 up 1.57 (1.97%). March wheat was down 6.50 at 625.750. March corn was up 1.25 at 411.75. February lean hogs were down 1.650 at 80.250. January feeder cattle were up 2.525 at 220.500. March copper was down 0.013 at 2.873. January natural gas was down 0.320 at 3.144. February coal was down 0.23 at 50.32.

~~Harvey 23 Dec 2014

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (The Telegraph, London): China has for the first time warned openly about the excessive strength of the Chinese yuan, a sign that the country may be shifting its exchange rate policy as deflation takes hold and currencies slide across Asia. Yi Gang, the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said the yuan’s rise had been “very fast” over the past year as it surges in tandem with the US dollar, making it the world’s second strongest currency. China’s real effective exchange rate (REER) has risen for six months in a row, tightening the screws on struggling exporters with wafer-thin margins. It rose 2.3pc in trade-weighted terms in November alone as countries devalue on all sides, leaving China exposed like a sore thumb. The effect is to tighten China’s monetary conditions into the downturn. The country has quietly joined Asia’s escalating currency wars, steering the yuan down by 2pc against the dollar since early November. This looks increasingly like a move to protect itself against Japan’s dramatic devaluation and against weakening currencies in Korea and other key Asian states. The yuan is no longer fixed to the dollar but remains linked through a “soft peg”. It has therefore been forced sharply upwards this year even though the Chinese economy is slowing and the country is losing global competiveness. China is also sliding uncomfortably close to deflation. Producer prices are falling at a rate of 2.7pc as excess plant in steel, cement, chemicals, coal and even solar chips lead to price wars. The headline inflation rate has dropped to 1.4pc. “China has a major deflation problem,” said Societe Generale.

Tom Lydon (ETFTrends.com): One of the newest entrants to the gold miners exchange traded funds arena is proving to be successful. The Sprott Gold Miners ETF (SGDM) has eclipsed $100 million in assets under management, according to a statement issued today. SGDM’s ascent to $100 million in assets under management makes the ETF one of the most successful new ETFs to come to market this year. Several factors make SGDM’s asset-gathering acumen even more impressive. First, the ETF debuted in July, meaning the fund has needed less than half of 2014 to gather $100 million in assets. Second, gold prices have stumbled since SGDM debuted. Over the past six months, the SPDR Gold Shares fund has plunged 10.6 percent. DS: Do not buy paper assets. Paper assets are completely controlled by TPTB. Only PMs held in your possession; not a safety deposit box, not a PM ETF, not in Singapore or Hong Kong or Zurich, but in your own possession; are safe. Anything you don't hold, you don't own. Miners can be naked shorted to oblivion. Do not think this will be a replay of 1934. Miners will go bust along with the currency and the economy, because the exchanges and commerce will will at some point cease and paper assets will go to zero.

Matt Clinch (CNBC): Russia’s government could still be pushed into using its gold reserves to bolster the falling ruble, currency experts have forecast. Rumors last week that Russia was on the verge of selling its gold reserves were quashed with the news on Friday that it has continued to add to its holdings. However, John Butler, chief investment officer at Atom Capital, and Alasdair MacLeod, the head of research at online bullion exchange GoldMoney Foundation, believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin could bring the country onto some sort of “gold standard” to try to shore up its economy. “It was (and still is) in Russia’s power to adopt a gold standard,” MacLeod told CNBC via email. “There is no doubt that Russia and China, plus the other Eurasian states in their sphere of influence are all accumulating gold and the indications are they see it as central to replacing the U.S. dollar for cross border trade...It is already in Russia’s interest to cast itself off from inflating western currencies and to base their economy on sound money, aka gold,” he said.

Darya Korsunskaya, Elena Fabrichnaya, and Lidia Kelly (Reuters): The Russian rouble hit its highest levels in two weeks on Tuesday, shored up by informal capital control measures designed to head off a repeat of the galloping inflation and mass protests that marked Russia’s 1998 financial crisis. The government put pressure on state-owned exporters on Tuesday to sell dollars while officials and banking sources said the central bank had installed supervisors at the currency trading desks of top state banks. Analysts said the measures were effectively a softer version of capital controls, adding that they did not believe President Vladimir Putin, who has drawn much of his popularity from financial stability and rising prosperity, would break his pledge not to resort to full-fledged controls.

Zero Hedge: A week after the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, was unable to push through his nominee for president, Stavros Dimas, in a vote in parliament that needed 200 votes to pass, hours ago the second presidential vote took place and just like last week it again failed to secured the needed 200 votes, with just 168 lawmakers voting for the designated appointee. This means that in the third and final voting round next week, on December 29 – a trading day where bad news will propagate like wildfire in the absence of any market liquidity and means Kevin Henry will have to work overtime buying ETFs - New Democracy’s Samaras has to find (or bribe) another 12 votes or else Greece is facing a snap election where the anti-bailout/anti-austerity leftist Syriza party is expected to win, and set off a chain of events that may result in Greece being kicked out of the Eurozone at least if the jitters seen during the summer of 2012 are any indication.

Andrew Crichlow (UKTelegraph): Brent crude crashed below the $60 per barrel level again on Mondayafter Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said his country would not intervene to revive prices. Ali al-Naimi – who oversees the world’s largest exporter of crude – said in an interview that even if the price of oil fell to $20 per barrel the kingdom would do nothing to arrest the decline. “Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant,” he said in an interview with Middle East Economic Survey (Mees). (In other words it’s not the Arabs who got caught here. They’ve trapped someone.). Mr Naimi’s remarks sent oil prices back into reverse after finishing last week firmer. Brent crude fell over 2.3pc to trade below the $60 per barrel range. The minister – who is the most powerful voice with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) – said that the cartel had changed its strategy from defending a certain price to focusing on retaining its market share.

Zero Hedge: No lesser oil-man than T. Boone Pickens made quite an appearance on CNBC this morning – stunning the cheerleaders into first defense then silence as he broke the facts on oil’s collapse to them. Oil is down “mainly due to weak demand,” he explains… the anchors deny, “I am the expert, not you” Pickens rages as he warns drilling rigs will be laid down on a very wide scale (just as we have noted previously). Arguing over ‘peak oil’, he calls CNBC chatter “bull****” and laid out a rather dismal short- to medium-term outlook for the oil & gas sector – not what the cheerleading tax-cut slurping media narrative wants to hear at all…

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a poor delivery day, registering 41 notices served for 4100 oz. Silver Comex registered 0 notices for nil oz. A few months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 247.62 tonnes for a loss of 55 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest rose by 1719 contracts despite yesterday’s silver price fall by 34 cents. The OI refuses to go down despite raids. Somebody has extremely strong hands and are very patient. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 149,820 contracts. The big December silver OI contract lost 66 contracts. It lowers to 35 OI contracts. In gold we had a slight rise in OI with the fall in price of gold on Monday to the tune of $16.20. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 374,716 for a gain of 806 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 586 contracts gaining 2 contracts despite the raid. We had no change in gold inventory at the GLD where inventory remains at 724.55 tonnes. There was no change in silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 338.135 million oz. All GOFO rates moved in the negative direction. Now the one month GOFO two month GOFO and 3 month GOFO rates are negative and also moved deeper into the negative. The 6th and 12 month GOFO also moved a little closer to the negative but still positive and out of backwardation. “demand is down” – “lower demand is the main driver” – “rig count is gonna fall – drop 500 rigs in next 6-9 months” CNBC: “Peak Oil didn’t happen” .. Pickens: “that’s all bull****… I am the expert not you” CNBC: “Well you’re not much of an expert if you thought Peak Oil happened”

Guardian/UK: The International Monetary Fund warned on Monday of the risk of Russia triggering a fresh phase of the global financial crisis as the plunge in the value of the rouble claimed its first banking victim. On the day that Russia’s central bank threw a $530m (£340m) lifeline to Moscow’s Trust Bank, the IMF said its generally upbeat assessment of the impact of falling oil prices on the global economy could be upset by investors taking fright at what is happening to Vladimir Putin’s energy-rich country. Alexei Kudrin, Russia’s former finance minister, said 2015 would be a tough year for the economy as he blamed the Kremlin for failing to act quickly enough and said the country’s debt would be downgraded to “junk” status. “Today, I can say that we have entered or are entering a real, full-fledged economic crisis. Next year, we will feel it clearly,” Kudrin said.

Michael Snyder (Economic Collapse Blog): In addition to all of our wars in the Middle East and the war that has erupted on the streets of America, we are now engaged in a cyber war with North Korea and an economic war with Russia. Without a doubt, the United States has the capability to do a tremendous amount of damage to both of them. But what about the damage that they could potentially do to us? We have a society that is absolutely teeming with soft targets. Our Internet infrastructure is extremely vulnerable, our debt-based economic system is already teetering on the edge of disaster, and government officials freely admit that security at key facilities such as power plants is sorely lacking. And these kinds of bitter conflicts have a way of escalating. The North Koreans and the Russians are both very proud, and neither one is going to back down any time soon. If a foreign power wanted to really make us hurt, it wouldn’t take much imagination at all. There are thousands of ways to do it. So Americans should not just smugly assume that we are untouchable. In a war, it is often those that are overconfident that get hurt the worst. On their end, the North Koreans are still denying that they had anything to do with the attack on Sony. And we may never know the actual truth. In reality, Russia could have carried out such an attack. Or it could have been the Chinese. Or it could have even been a false flag cyberattack conducted by a three letter U.S. agency. We just don’t know. But what we do know is that North Korea is now vowing to take action against “the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland“…“The DPRK has already launched the toughest counteraction. Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction. Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans,” a report on state-run KCNA read.

Zero Hedge: According to RT, a South Korean nuclear plant operator’ computer system was hacked and the perpetrator has leaked blueprints and manuals, says if his demands for three reactors’ closure aren’t met, those living near the facilities should “stay away” from home. In the meantime, the Korean Hydro & Nuclear Power company has launched a two-day exercise on Monday to prepare staff to a possible cyber-attack.

Tyler Durden: And just like that Q3 GDP, the one for the quarter ended Sept.30, was revised from 3.9% (which in turn was revised higher from 3.5%) to a mindblowing 5% – the highest print since Q3 2003 when GDP rose by 6.9%. This was above the highest Wall Street forecast of 4.7%, higher even than Joe Lavorgna’s. The drivers: unprecedented revisions to Personal Consumption which supposedly rose by 3.2% in Q3 as opposed to the 2.2% prior reported, and 2.5% expected. Consumption accounted for 2.21% of the final 5.0% GDP print: this was the highest since Q4 2010 when it rose 2.8%. In fact, everything was revised higher: fixed investment rose 1.21% compared to the 0.97% reported previously; private inventories were virtually unchanged after allegedly subtracting 0.6% from growth in the original Q3 GDP estimate; net trade was unchanged adding 0.77% to GDP and finally the government boosted GDP a little as well, contributing 0.8%. In other words, it is all downhill from here, as the subprime fueled boom in consumer spending in the late summer will certainly not be repeated any time soon, Q4 capex is crashing (as the durables report just confirmed), and inventory restocking took place far earlier than expected, meaning expectations of a low 2% pring for Q4 GDP will now have to be revised lower as consumption was pulled aggressively into the present.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Lisa Haven (B4IN): Main Core. That is the name of the government document that has over 8 million names of American Citizens who have been targeted for terrorism. If you are a conservative, libertarian, stock food or ammo, Christian, gun owner, homeschooler, veteran, pro-life, or patriot, then you are a terrorist. If you believe in conspiracy theories, the New World Order, or End Time Bible prophecy, then you’re are also on that list. I don’t know about you but I pretty much fit all of these categories, which makes me a terrorist and one of the 8 million names on Main Core. https://beforeitsnews.com/police-state/2014/12/the-us-is-preparing-for-t...

Alex Jones (Infowars.com): On this Tuesday, December 23 edition of the Alex Jones Show with Steve Quayle, Alex covers the civil war unfolding in America as the FBI gears up cops to take on citizens and Wisconsin mobilizes the National Guard after another cop is exonerated in a killing, this time of a schizophrenic man in Milwaukee. Alex also covers a bill reintroduced by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to end the disturbing trend of military equipment ending up in the hands of domestic law enforcement departments across the country. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m51YSjYSX0

Glenn Canady: This is amazing information from Dr. Lawrence Dunegan who was invited to attend a lecture by Dr. Richard Day (head of Planned Parenthood) in 1969. Dr. Day told this room of about 80-90 doctors all about the changes they would witness in their lifetime as a result of “The Order” or as we know it now as the “New World Order” or Illuminati. Dr Day told the doctors that he was free to speak at this time because everything was in place and nobody could stop them now! Dr Day stated at one point that he would be in real trouble if the information he was telling them got out to the general public. That’s why taking notes was prohibited and and recording devices were not allowed in the room. Was it a coincidence that Dr. Day died shortly after Dr. Dunegan began distributing this information on audio tapes in 1989? I believe they killed him in retaliation for the information he released. As Dr. Day admitted during the lecture there were many ways to kill people with diseases or even artificial heart attacks. “PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO GET USED TO CHANGE . . .” This often came out in the context of a society of… where people seemed to have no roots or moorings, but would be passively willing to accept change simply because it was all they had ever known. This was sort of in contrast to generations of people up until this time where certain things you expected to be, and remain in place as reference points for your life. So change was to be brought about, change was to be anticipated and expected, and accepted, no questions asked. Another comment that was made . . from time to time during the presentation was, “People are too trusting. People don’t ask the right questions.” Note: Please take note of the comment “People Are Too Trusting”. The new world order is this far along because many of you reading this article were too trusting! You believe the fake news on TV and you didn’t seek out other sources for your information like VeteransToday.com which destroys the lies of the mainstream and even the gatekeepers of the alternative media.

Michael Moore (B4IN): Right now the United States is actively conducting financial warfare against Russia. As Jim notes in the above interview, we have begun seizing the assets of Russian officials and are working to implement sanctions on the global level. Vladimir Putin may not be planning to launch nuclear strikes at U.S. cities as a result, but what if the Obama administration crosses a line that shouldn’t be crossed? Could Putin launch a counter attack in the cyber world? Perhaps, as noted by Rickards, he would give the order to take down our stock exchanges, a move that would wreak havoc across the entire world. Former Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano has warned that a cyber attack on the U.S. power grid or utility infrastructure is inevitable. Sure, it could be instigated by rogue hackers, but for widespread success in such a scenario it will likely come in the form of a state sponsored asymmetric attack that may also involve other non-kinetic means. The fall out would be disastrous. But more frightening than that is the question of how our country would respond. What would be the next level of escalation? During the cold war there existed a principle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). The idea was that if they fired their missiles, we would fire our missiles. The threat of widespread destruction kept thermo-nuclear warfare at bay for three decades. There were most assuredly escalations even then. We came close to all out war with the Soviet Union on at least two occasions, but everyone understood what it meant. As Rickards explains, today we have a similar principle but it seems that Obama administration officials haven’t yet grasped its implications: Today what we have is mutually-assured financial destruction. So the U.S. can absolutely use financial weapons against Russia, there’s a lot of things we can do. But if we do anything beyond tokens, a token would be some Oligarch doesn’t get to go to the Super bowl, or you freeze the assets of some minor, mid-level guy who doesn’t have any assets, those are token sanctions. The United States was deeply involved in the Ukrainian revolution from the outset. Moscow, not one to take things lying down as the west moved in on a former Soviet Satellite, responded by deploying over 100,000 troops to the border and annexing Crimea. The U.S. subsequently moved to implement financial sanctions against Russia’s top political leaders and are reportedly looking into the personal assets of President Putin himself. The Chinese jumped into the fray by voicing their support for Russia through coming monetary changes and warned that these sanctions could well backfire against the United States. A few days later, President Obama deployed US troops to Poland and other NATO allies. Now, as we learned this week, Russian strategic bombers are making fly-by’s along our West Coast. Slowly but surely this conflict is escalating.

Inquisitr: even the Ebola virus in its current form could be used as bioweapon. While it’s not something anyone wants to consider, one of the potential 2015 predictions is that terrorists like the Islamic State may attempt to create an Ebola epidemic in the United States by drinking the virus and then purposefully spreading it far and wide. In addition, Vladimir Nikiforov, head if the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency’ Institution of Advanced Training, believes the current Ebola virus could be weaponized. “Actually, this virus can be used in the form of a spray, which can lead to very big trouble. Biological weapons are nothing like a nuclear bomb… In order to make a nuclear bomb, one would require a uranium mine, a nuclear power plant and so on, [but biological weapons] are made in a small laboratory, which can be easily camouflaged. You know that there are rogue states. And here’s the thing, I can’t guarantee that some country isn’t preparing something of the kind.” https://www.inquisitr.com/1689989/2015-predictions-zombie-apocalypse-vir...

Michael Snyder (EndOfTheAmeranDream): The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it… #8: SUPERBUGS THAT ARE RESISTANT TO ANTIBIOTICS--Medical professionals are becoming increasingly alarmed by the antibiotic-resistant superbugs that are starting to pop up all over the place. So far it is not a catastrophic threat, but experts warn that it could soon become one. The following is an excerpt from one of my previous articles…The “wonder drugs” that we have been using since the middle of the last century are rapidly losing their effectiveness, and medical authorities are warning that the emergence of very powerful antibiotic-resistant superbugs represents “one of the gravest threats in the history of medicine“. Of course the “wonder drugs” that I am talking about are known today as antibiotics. These drugs attack bacteria, and when they first began to be developed back in the 1950s and 1960s they were hailed as “miracles” that would save countless numbers of lives. Well, it turns out that nature is having the last laugh. All over the planet bacteria are developing resistance to these drugs, and scientists are warning that they can’t really do anything to stop these superbugs. With each passing year these superbugs are gaining ground, and there appears to be not much hope on the horizon of being able to fight them. In fact, no new classes of antibiotics have been invented since 1987, and none are being developed right now. Meanwhile, scientists are telling us that many current antibiotic treatments will be completely obsolete by the year 2030. Are you starting to understand why so many high profile members of the scientific community are using the words “catastrophic threat” to describe this crisis?

Bill Weather (FortyDreamz.blogspot.com): When WW3 comes, most able bodied men are going to be forcefully drafted to fight the Chinese, Russians and Mexicans who will be invading the land. By this dream, the draft is going to be sudden, just like the WW3 invasion. Those wanting to escape the country will not be able to do so at that time. Friends will betray friends. The Auburn name is a description of what is going to happen to this nation. Every American is going to get Au-burned in one way or another, in blood, dirt and fire, as the color of Auburn. They will get the university of Auburn higher learning thru the blood, dirt and fire, for judgment does teach the hard way. There will also be a great civil conflict right before WW3, signified by the Civil War uniform the soldier was wearing. Once we were informed of what was going on, we then accepted the mission, to defend the land from the invaders. Those who cannot escape and are drafted will have a place of honor for laying down their lives to protect the women and children. This is what is coming to America during WW3. Expect that if you do not believe this word of prophecy and prepare ahead to escape, then you will be stuck here to be drafted and fight in the war.

Psalms 17:1 Hear a just cause, O LORD, give heed to my cry; Give ear to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips.
2 Let my judgment come forth from Your presence; Let Your eyes look with equity.
3 You have tried my heart; You have visited me by night; You have tested me and You find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
4 As for the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips I have kept from the paths of the violent.
5 My steps have held fast to Your paths. My feet have not slipped.
6 ¶I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God; Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech.
7 Wondrously show Your lovingkindness, O Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand From those who rise up against them.
8 Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings
9 From the wicked who despoil me, My deadly enemies who surround me.
10 They have closed their unfeeling heart, With their mouth they speak proudly.
11 They have now surrounded us in our steps; They set their eyes to cast us down to the ground.
12 He is like a lion that is eager to tear, And as a young lion lurking in hiding places.
13 ¶Arise, O LORD, confront him, bring him low; Deliver my soul from the wicked with Your sword,
14 From men with Your hand, O LORD, From men of the world, whose portion is in this life, And whose belly You fill with Your treasure; They are satisfied with children, And leave their abundance to their babes.
15 As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.

Silver OI rose by 1719 contracts from 148,101 up to 149,820 even though silver was down 34 cents yesterday. We are again losing more short covering from our bankers as the OI refuses to liquidate appreciably despite the low price of silver. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI lower by 66 contracts down to 35 contracts. We had 0 notices served upon on yesterday so we strangely saw 66 contracts roll to a future month. This is highly unusual late in any delivery month.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest rose today by 806 contracts from 373,910 all the way up to 374,716 with gold down up by $16.20 yesterday (at the Comex close). It seems that nobody left the gold arena with the massive raid orchestrated by the bankers. We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 586 contracts for a gain of 2 contracts. We had 3 delivery notices served yesterday so we gained 5 contracts or 500 additional oz will stand for the December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 36 contracts down to 443. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI rose to 224,241 contracts for a gain of 234 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was simply awful at 16,102. The confirmed volume yesterday was just as bad at 35,324. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today. It now seems that most of the volume at the Comex is done off hours.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 69,471. The confirmed volume yesterday was also poor at 139,290 even although they had help from our high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 41 notices filed for 4100 oz.

Inventory Numbers

In Silver Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz
We had 0 dealer withdrawal:
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz
We had 1 customer withdrawals:
i) Out of Brinks: 25,001.200 oz (one decimal)
Total customer withdrawal 25,001.200 oz

We had 0 customer deposit:
Total customer deposits: nil oz.
We had 0 adjustments.
Total dealer inventory: 64.594 million oz.
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 175.276 million oz.
The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts for nil oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2933) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (35) minus (the number of notices filed today (0) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2933 contracts x 5000 oz + (35) OI for the November contract month – 0 (the number of notices filed today) = 14,840,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 330,000 silver ounces that will not stand for the December silver contract. These were obviously cash settled.

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts for nil oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 41 contracts of which 41 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2933) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (35) minus (the number of notices filed today (0) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.

Thus: 2933 contracts x 5000 oz + (35) OI for the November contract month – 0 (the number of notices filed today) = 14,840,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 330,000 silver ounces that will not stand for the December silver contract. These were obviously cash settled.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2836) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (586) minus the # gold notices filed today (41) x 100 oz = 338,100 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.

Thus the initial standings:
2836 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (586) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (41) notices served today equals 338,100 oz or 10.51 tonnes.
We gained 5 contracts or 500 additional oz will stand for delivery in the December contract month.
Total dealer inventory: 770,690.631 oz or 23.971 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.961 million oz. (247.62) tonnes)

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 788.00, down 0.76%. WTI February crude was 56.80 up 1.31. Brent crude was 61.69 up 1.58. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.89 up 0.27. The 30 year US Treasury bond was up 0.1000 at 2.8500. The 10 year T-Note was up 0.1000 at 2.2600. The dollar was up 0.29 at 90.04. The PPT/Dow was 18024.17 up 64.73. Silver closed at 15.79 up 0.11. The GSR was 74.5345 down 0.5101 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 80.61 down 0.84 (1.03%). March wheat was up 9.75 at 635.500. March corn was up 2.25 at 414.00. February lean hogs were up 1.400 at 81.650. March feeder cattle were down 5.225 at 215.275. March copper was down 0.007 at 2.866. January natural gas was up 0.027 at 3.171. February coal was down 0.57 at 49.75.

~~Harvey 27 Dec 2014

FDIC Bank Seizures
The FDIC did not seize any banks this week, and with only a 1% reserve to bank deposit ratio could not pay for very many, even if it did.

News and Commentary

Millie Munshi and Phoebe Sedgman (Bloomberg): [ [B]This article is an example of the meme being presented to the population to keep them content. It bears little relationship to the true economy followed by John Williams (Shadowstats) that show the economy is contracting and not growing. Precious metals should be a hedge against disaster, not an investment vehicle. All paper assets are headed to zero. PMs in your possession are the only means of preserving wealth as art and land cannot be hidden and retained as PMs can. We are facing the worst crisis in American history that there has been or ever will be. Americans need to prepare with food, water, meds, and self-defense. ] Investors in the world’s biggest exchange-traded product backed by bullion sold the most gold in 18 months as the U.S. economic recovery cut demand for a haven. Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust fell 1.6 percent yesterday to 712.9 metric tons, the biggest drop since June 2013. Assets declined to the smallest since September 2008. Bullion for immediate delivery is heading for the first back-to-back annual decline since 2000. A collapse in oil prices is curbing demand for the metal as an inflation hedge, while the Federal Reserve is moving closer to increasing interest rates. Gains for the dollar and U.S. equities have also made gold less attractive as an alternative asset. “You’ve got all these factors conspiring against gold,” Michael Cuggino, [ DS: In terms of the screamingly bullish fundamentals and the market manipulation, Cuggino's remarks are nonsense, but he is speaking from the viewpoint of an investor, which is a financially and probably physically fatal wrong perspective at this time.] president and fund manager at Permanent Portfolio Family of Funds Inc. who helps oversee $7 billion, said in a telephone interview. “A certain number of investors are throwing in the towel.” [ DS: No doubt some "investors" are throwing in the towel in commodities and going into cash or bonds which will all lose their value when they ought to be thinking in terms of preserving wealth with PMs held in their personal possession. If you don't hold it, you don't own it.] Spot gold slid 0.2 percent to $1,174.42 an ounce at 10:19 a.m. in New York today. Prices fell 2.3 percent this year after a 28 percent plunge in 2013, the most since 1981. The U.S. economy expanded at a 5 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, the biggest advance in 11 years, government figures showed yesterday. Fed officials last week dropped a pledge to keep borrowing costs near zero percent for a “considerable time,” replacing it with a promise to be “patient,” according to a statement.

Zero Hedge: For those wondering where US shale exploration and production companies will be in about 2-3 years, look no further than the gold miners, where the disconnect between undaunted physical demand and relentless paper supply (after rebounding above 0%, GOFO is once again negative through the 3 month mark), and where high production costs and low selling prices, after two years of balance sheet pain, is finally leading many over the cliff. Case in point, Canadian gold-miner San Gold, which had a capitalization of over $1 billion in 2010 just filed for bankruptcy protection. It isn’t the first gold-miner to wave the white flag, and it certainly won’t be the last. As the WSJ reported earlier, the Winnipeg-based company said in a statement that it has asked Canadian courts for an initial 30 days protection from its creditors as it seeks to restructure its business. “San Gold spent half a billion on their assets, and they haven’t had a profitable quarter in six years,” said Greg Gibson, who became CEO in June after a boardroom revolt against the previous management. The problem, as gold miners (and their long-suffering shareholders know) and as shale companies are about to find out, is that “the sector had overstretched itself during the commodity boom, when the high gold price, and willing investors, saw miners spend heavily on acquisitions and bring new production on line. Some of the sector’s new production was lower grade gold, which is more expensive to mine and became unprofitable as the price of gold fell.” As Gibson said, “The party is over and its time fix things” and now even the big companies, those which have access to Wall Street’s ZIRP capital are starting to fold. As Gibson said, “The party is over and its time fix things” and now even the big companies, those which have access to Wall Street’s ZIRP capital are starting to fold. But it’s not just western gold miners that are finally starting to feel the pain of three years of declining gold prices: even more importantly, according to Bloomberg’s Chart of the Day, China’s “gold diggers” are also preparing to drop their shovels.

Clara Denna (Reuters): Deutsche Bank is open to offers for its London-based gold vault following the closure of its physical precious metals business, three sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. “If the right offer came along, then the bank would sell the London vault,” one source close to the situation said. The German bank shut its physical precious metals trading arm last month as it further reduced its exposure to commodity markets. DS: Andrew Maguire and others have talked about the great shortage of gold in London. The gold vault space there is no longer needed, so this vault will probably sit empty.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a fair delivery day, registering 13 notices served for 1300 oz. Silver Comex registered 1 notice for 5,000 oz. Three months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 247.62 tonnes for a loss of 55 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest fell by only 45 contracts despite Wednesday’s silver price fall of 7 cents. The OI refuses to go down despite raids. Somebody has extremely strong hands and are very patient. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 149,104 contracts. The big December silver OI contract lost 3 contracts. It lowers to 22 OI contracts. In gold we had a huge fall in OI with the fall in price of gold on Wednesday to the tune of $4.40. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 372,298 for a loss of 2914 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 299 contracts losing 246 contracts. In silver, the open interest fell by only 45 contracts despite Wednesday’s silver price fall of 7 cents. The OI refuses to go down despite raids. Somebody has extremely strong hands and are very patient. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 149,104 contracts. The big December silver OI contract lost 3 contracts. It lowers to 22 OI contracts. In gold we had a huge fall in OI with the fall in price of gold on Wednesday to the tune of $4.40. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 372,298 for a loss of 2914 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 299 contracts losing 246 contracts. Today we had a tiny loss in gold inventory of 0.60 tonnes at the GLD (probably to pay for fees). Inventory is 712.30 tonnes. In silver there was no change in silver inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 330.569 million oz.

Zero Hedge on abysmal Japan: Last night in Japan, the government reported an onslaught of economic data that was absolutely abysmal. First, the nation’s industrial output suffered a surprise drop in November, turning down after two months of rises. Industrial production declined 0.6% mom in November, contrary to market consensus for growth in production. This also represented a significant undershoot versus the production outlook released last month for an increase of 2.3%. Manufacturer shipments were -1.4% mom, the first contraction in three months. As a result, the inventory ratio rose 4.0% mom. The government maintained its assessment that production fluctuates directionlessly. Then there was Japanese consumer inflation which continued to slow in November, dealing another challenge to Tokyo and the Japanese central bank’s battle to conquer years of deflation. Then there was the Japanese consumer who clearly needs even moar Krugman, if only to accelerate the demise: real consumer spending dropped 2.5% yoy in November. While this was less than the 4.0% fall in October, this still marked the eighth straight month that real consumer spending has dropped yoy since the consumption tax hike. Finally, there was the one issue that is at the crux of the entire failed Keynesian dogma: nominal and real wages. We will have more to say about this, but in a nutshell, total cash wages and overtime pay decline yoy for the first time in 9 months and 20 months, respectively. More impotantly, real wages (nominal wages less the CPI inflation) came in at -4.3% yoy (October: -3.0%), as the extent of the decline widened in step with the fall in nominal wages. This was the largest decline since the 4.8% recorded in December 1998. That’s right: Abenomics is now responsible for the biggest drop in Japanese wages on record.

Tyler Durden: On Wednesday, the People’s Bank of China told participants that they will soon be able to add deposits from nonbank financial institutions to their calculations of their loan-to-deposit ratios, according to the executives. The move would add considerably to the banks’ deposits and allow them to lend more. Why is this a major development? Because as we reported over a month ago, “China’s Shadow Banking Grinds To A Halt As Bad Debt Surges Most In A Decade” in which we explained: "The main reason for China’s relentless slowdown in its growth pace, which only two years ago was expected to rebound back into the double digits soon (atleast according to the IMF), is the ongoing contraction in credit formation, which rising at 13.2% for new loans and 15.4% for TSF outstanding, was the lowest credit expansion recorded in China also since 2005. The main culprit is China's shadow banking system China’s shadow banking that not only ground to a halt, it actually continued moving in reverse!

Zero Hedge on China's shadow banking: In other words, as China finally reveals little by little the true extent of its gargantuan bad debt problem (which is far worse than ever in history, although Beijing is taking its time in making the necessary revelations: and after all Chinese banks are all State Owned Enterprieses–SOEs and if needed they can all just get a few trillions renminbi in in liquidity injections a la the “developed west”), it is also slamming the brakes on the shadow banking system that for years was the sector where marginal credit creation, and thus growth as well as bad debt formation, was rampant. So while it has been widely documented that Japan is doing all in its power to crush the Japanese economy and in the process to send the Nikkei to all time highs, little has been said about a far greater slowdown in domestic (and indirectly global) credit creation using the “China” channel, where shadow banking has just slammed shut. And with unregulated Chinese Shadow Banking credit creation essentially halted, the PBOC has no other option than to boost traditional credit creation via official loan channels. Which is precisely what the PBOC did overnight.

William Pesek (Bloomberg): Beijing’s move to bail out Russia, on top of its recent aid for Venezuela and Argentina, signals the death of the post-war Bretton Woods world. It’s also marks the beginning of the end for America’s linchpin role in the global economy and Japan’s influence in Asia. China stepping up its role as lender of last resort upends an economic development game that’s been decades in the making. The IMF, World Bank and ADB are bloated, change-adverse institutions. When Ukraine received a $17 billion IMF-led bailout this year it was about shoring up a geopolitically important economy, not geopolitical blackmail. Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s government doesn’t care about upgrading economies, the health of tax regimes or central bank reserves. It cares about loyalty. The quid pro quo: For our generous assistance we expect your full support on everything from Taiwan to territorial disputes to deadening the West’s pesky focus on human rights. This may sound hyperbolic; Russia, Argentina and Venezuela are already at odds with the U.S. and its allies. But what about Europe? In 2011 and 2012, it looked to Beijing to save euro bond markets through massive purchases. Expect more of this dynamic in 2015 should fresh turmoil hit the euro zone, at which time Beijing will expect European leaders to pull their diplomatic punches. What happens if the Federal Reserve’s tapering slams economies from India to Indonesia and governments look to China for help? Why would Cambodia, Laos or Vietnam bother with the IMF’s conditions when China writes big checks with few strings attached?

Zero Hedge: The world was slow to wake up to the new reality in which China is now the de facto IMF sovereign backstop, as Zero Hedge described two weeks ago in “China Prepares To Bailout Russia” when we noted that a PBOC swap-line was meant to reduce the role of the US dollar if China and Russia need to help each other overcome a liquidity squeeze, something we first noted over two months ago in “China, Russia Sign CNY150 Billion Local-Currency Swap As Plunging Oil Prices Sting Putin.” In fact, it was only this week that Bloomberg reported that “China Offers Russia Help With Currency Swap Suggestion.” But in order to fully backstop Russia away from a SWIFT-world in which the dollar reigns supreme, one extra step was necessary: the launching of direct FX trade involving the Russian and Chinese currencies, either spot or forward – a move away from purely theoretical bilateral FX trade agreements – which would not only enable and make direct currency trading more efficient by sidestepping the dollar entirely, but also allow Russian companies to budget in Chinese Yuan terms. It is no surprise then that this is precisely the missing step that was announced overnight, and will be implemented starting Monday.

Shinichi Saoshiro (Reuters): Japanese two-year government bonds were sold for the first time at negative yields today, underlining strong demand for the debt under the Bank of Japan’s qualitative and quantitative easing policy, through which it buys large amounts of short-term debt. In Europe, the two-year German bund yield has spent most of its time since August beneath zero, while in the Swiss government debt market even the five-year yield has gone negative.

Tyler Durden: The Bank of Japan just bought, indirectly, a record amount of foreign stocks. We hope it is now clear why Goldman, Krugman and the entire Keynesian brigade have been urging Abe to continue with his destructive policies until the bitter end. And as long Japan’s rates keep going lower courtesy of the relentless BOJ bid, global equities will keep rising: after all that is the whole premise of a fungible, globalized monetary system in which it no longer matters if the Fed, or the BOJ, or the ECB is doing the monetization. But how does this ridiculous Keynesian “perpetual engine” of stock market growth end? We have made our opinion quite clear on the topic over the past 2 years, so instead we will hand the mic over to Blackrock: "Being bullish on Japanese equities has become somewhat mainstream in the last two years. Foreign investors dominate trading, with a 60% share of volume on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. A loss of confidence in Abenomics could cause market gyrations. Reforms to develop a stronger equity culture would reduce Japan’s vulnerability to the mood swings of global investors, but this will take time. The BOJ is playing with fire. What if the central bank actually succeeds and inflation starts to take off quickly? The nightmare scenario would be a spike in JGB rates leading to a fiscal crisis. Japan’s public debt load stands at almost 250% of GDP, according to the IMF, the highest in the G7. DS: JGB (Japanese Government Bonds) spiking would force the Bank of Japan into issuing more money that would cause rates to spike more, thus stimulating more money printing. In other words, a rise in interest rates would lead to hyperinflation and eventually the collapse of the currency.

Zero Hedge: Last week, after the unanimous passage of the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014 in Congress, which made legal the provision of US “lethal aid” to Kiev and which Russia blasted as an act of aggression and promised that it would merely accelerate the deterioration of relations between Russia and the west, we wrote that “World Awaits Russian Response As Obama Makes “Lethal Aid” To Ukraine Legal.” We didn’t have long to wait: one short hour ago, Putin adopted an updated version of its military doctrine, which “reflects the emergence of new threats against its national security” and which names both the NATO military buildup on Russia’s borders, as well as the US and the destabilized situation in some regions (read Ukraine) as the main foreign threats to Russian security. The doctrine update also, for the first time, put protection of Russian national interest in the Arctic (read oil and nat gas) among the key priorities for Russia’s armed forces. In other words, Putin is not only not backing down, but has once again explicitly warned NATO that any western action, either in Ukraine or elsewhere, will have a proportional response. Now that Ukraine’s gold has been pillaged and the country’s economy in freefall, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Kiev’s “allies” let the nation fend for itself and push it right back into the hands of Russia. After all, the plunging oil prices are causing enough hurt to the Kremlin where events in Ukraine are now largely irrelevant.

Tyler Durden: For the past few months, the one silver lining to the energy complex – with crude oil plummeting to levels not seen since 2009 – was nat gas, which soared to the mid-$4s in early November on expectations of a brutal polar vortex for the second year in a row sending heating demand surging. Well, so far the “harsh” weather, which was blamed for the epic collapse in the US economy in Q1 has not materialized, and all those buyers of natgas contracts have been scrambling to sell all of their exposure afraid they may suffer the same fate as their crude trading brethren. End result: as of moments ago, nat gas finally slide under $3, the first time it has done so since 2012!

Mark Gillispie (AP): East Cleveland has long been one of the poorest cities in the state, a model for what urban decay looks like — streets filled with blighted and boarded-up homes and tired commercial districts. And it’s beyond broke. The city government’s cellphone provider recently cut off service for nonpayment. It is getting two new salt trucks purchased with federal money but won’t be able to fill them because of what it owes Morton Salt Inc., one of the city’s fiscal overseers said. This city of 17,000 people is now considering whether to file for municipal bankruptcy, which would be a first for an Ohio municipality.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Spudfarmer (DailyCollapseReport.com): As many of us who are preparing for an uncertain future have discovered, trying to prepare to become self-sufficient for an infinite number of scenarios is overwhelming as best. More often it becomes a sort of anxiety provoking undertaking with no end in sight. It is easy to become so overwhelmed that you just run around buying things you know you will need at some point in the future. A box of bullets here, some canned veggies there, and so it goes. The tool I constantly use to help overcome this problem is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As most of you probably know Abraham Maslow (one of the founders of modern psychology) developed a pyramid of human needs with five separate levels. Each level contains different requirements that must be met before moving on to the next level. Level 1: Life Requirements: Water- My water will come from my well with a back up hand pump. Food- 1 year supply of long term storables like wheat, salt, sugar/honey, powdered milk, hand grinder, spare grinder parts, etc… Shelter- My house. Heat- Wood stove to heat and cook with plus 5 cords wood storage, matches, splitting maul, ax. Level 2: Long Term Survival Tools and Protection. These are things that will be essential to any long term survival plan. This is not even close to a complete list, just examples. Things like toiletries, non-hybrid seeds, garden tools, seasonal clothing, canned fruits & veggies, guns, ammo, medical supplies, etc. Level 3: Quality of Life--These are things that would be very nice to have and would upgrade your status from merely surviving to living borderline comfortable. These are things like books for your survival library, chicken coop w/hens, goat for milk, taking an EMT course, vitamins to supplement your diet, antibiotics, etc. Level 4: Barter/Trades==These are items/skills that will allow you to get the most out of a survival situation. Some things on this list will increase your value as a person in a true TEOTWAWKI situation. This will also allow you to live much more comfortably in this scenario. These are things like welding, mechanical, medical skills that you can use to improve your personal situation as well as trade for other items. Other things might be a beehive for honey production or solar panels to recharge batteries or power electronics. These are skills/things that everyone should be striving to acquire after meeting basic needs. Level 5: Add to existing stores and luxury items--These are things that are not at all essential but would make life better. Things in here would be candy for children (and yourself), board games, DVDs, music, etc. You would also increase previous set levels of need. More bullets, food for barter, etc.

Michael Snyder (EndOfTheAmericanDream): The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it: #9. Cyberwar--Did you see what just happened to Sony? It is probably the most embarrassing and financially damaging incident in company history. Of course the North Koreans are denying that they were behind the attack, but there is a good chance that they were. Sadly, this could just be a preview of what is coming. For example, what would happen if a cyberattack took down all of our major banks? What would we do? Most people don’t realize this, but our banks are already under assault every minute of every single day. Wall Street banks are getting hit by cyber attacks every single minute of every single day. It is a massive onslaught that is not highly publicized because the bankers do not want to alarm the public. But as you will see below, one big Wall Street bank is spending 250 million dollars a year just by themselves to combat this growing problem. The truth is that our financial system is not nearly as stable as most Americans think that it is. We have become more dependent on technology than ever before, and that comes with a potentially huge downside.

Pamela Geller (PamalaGeller.com): Two men (34 and 43 years old) on Wednesday night walked on the Venloerstraße and repeatedly greeted passersby with "Merry Christmas!". The greeters encountered three oncoming people (a man and two women) who obviously felt disturbed by the greeting. The 34-year-old was suddenly attacked from behind. He was cut on the head and back by the three passersby, and the trio then fled. The two greeters alerted the police. The 34-year-old was taken to hospital. Whether the injury was with a knife or other sharp object is not certain. He did not see the attack coming. - See more at: https://pamelageller.com/2014/12/german-is-stabbed-in-back-by-muslim-aft...

Pamala Geller (PamalaGeller.com): A man driving a van ploughed into a crowd strolling through a Christmas market in Nantes in western France on Monday evening, injuring 10 people, an official at the local prefecture told Reuters. Five people suffered serious injuries, including the driver, the official said. According to local newspaper Ouest France, citing a police officer and witnesses on the scene, the driver of the white van shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic) and then stabbed himself with a knife. The Christmas market was evacuated and secured by police, a Reuters witness reported. - See more at: https://pamelageller.com/2014/12/2nd-vehicular-jihad-in-2-days-muslim-ra...

Paul Joseph Watson (Infowars): The annual trend of spoiled ungrateful brats taking to social media to complain about the Christmas gifts they did or didn’t receive from their parents has reared its ugly head once again, reminding us that vacuous materialism has replaced the true meaning of Christmas for many people in the west. The United States has one of the highest child poverty rates in the developed world, with millions of families struggling just to put food on the table. With 32.2 percent of children living below the poverty line, America ranks 36th out of the 41 wealthy countries according to UNICEF. However, that sobering reality wasn’t at the forefront of the minds of these individuals, who chose to publicly insult their parents and throw temper tantrums because they didn’t get an iPad or the correctly colored gadget. In addition, people are already selling their unwanted gifts on eBay. Hundreds of thousands of children have been forced to flee Syria as a result of civil war ripping their home country apart, with many compelled to become slave laborers in Lebanon, with kids as young as five beaten with sticks as they toil in potato and bean fields. Many of these children have lost their entire families and probably don’t even know what an iPad is. To compare their plight, in addition to that of Christians across the Middle East, who have been forced to flee Iraq and Syria in their hundreds of thousands to escape persecution, torture and death, to that of bratty teenagers (and some adults) irate at their parents for not spending hundreds of dollars on the latest tablet is humbling. DS: The true meaning of Christmas is that a son was born not begotten of Adam, and who was thus free of Adam's curse of death. The Creator of the world, Jesus, was given a body through birth, and by means of His body was thereby empowered to die. As Creator He was of sufficient worth to pay the debt of death that His indebted creation could not pay, if He was successful in living a perfect life, and if He was willing to die for His enemies. Cursed men had no power to pay their debt of transgression of God's law, because God obligated their death (the just penalty for sin) as a result of Adam's sin. Because men could not pay their debt to God, all men had to die and remain dead forever with no hope of repatriation from the Devil's Hadean realm without God's direct intervention. The birth of Baby Jesus potentially made possible the complete forgiveness of sins that then empowered God to justly raise the dead. So, Christmas is a fitting time to celebrate, because it is a great milestone in God's plan to eternally overcome sin and its consequences and to provide men eternal life. Thanks be to God for this manifestation of His great power and wisdom, and thanks be to Jesus Christ who was willing to die that His creation might live.

Business Standard: Researchers have developed a new 'illusion coating' that could hide things by making them look like something else or even completely disappear. The researchers take the object they want cloaked and surround it with a spacer, either air or foam. They then apply the ultra-thin layer of dielectric with copper patterning designed for the wavelengths they wish to cloak. In this way, antennae and sensors could be made invisible or deceptive to remote inspection. Another application of this material would be to protect objects from other emitting objects nearby while still allowing electromagnetic communication between them.

End Times Prophecy: There are animals dying all over the world today in huge numbers, due to the polluted state of the sea and air. Millions of Fish and massive numbers of whales and dolphins are washing ashore dead. Birds are falling dead out of the sky, and millions of poultry are dying from avian flu. The animals of the land like cattle are also dying in large numbers from disease. Although animals and fish have been dying all throughout history, we have not seen the massive consistent numbers that we are seeing today. Please remember! This is just one of the MANY signs of the last days. There is no doubt that these mass animal deaths occurring around the world today is one of the many signs of the times, showing that we are living in the last days. Throughout history we have not seen animals dying in these kinds of numbers all around the world. But the earth and the seas are so polluted now from man made chemicals and oil spills, the animals just don't stand a chance! But this was to be expected, as God has already warned us through Bible prophecy that this world is heading for complete ruin. Friends, it's time to turn to Christ Jesus. He is our ONLY hope for the future. https://www.end-times-prophecy.org/animal-deaths-birds-fish-end-times.html

Dave Hodges: America is already on the edge with regard to a starvation crisis due to economic conditions alone. An economic collapse, or no shortage of any other kind of disaster, would plunge this country into the depths of unimaginable horrors associated with extreme food shortages. America is already on the edge with regard to a starvation crisis due to economic conditions alone. An economic collapse, or no shortage of any other kind of disaster, would plunge this country into the depths of unimaginable horrors associated with extreme food shortages. The real and specific cause for food inflation is the low-end $940 billion of additional monetary stimulus from the United States Federal Reserve’s quantitative (bail out) easing over the last 18 months. Shockingly, one out of every six men, ranging in ages from 25 to 54, are not employed. Median family income in the United States is 7% lower than it was in 2000. The critical element which could most impact the number of Americans who would vulnerable to starvation has to do with disruptions in our transportation system. For the purpose of efficiency and to maximize profits “Just in time (JIT)” food deliveries take place at grocery outlets several times per day. Without these JIT deliveries, we would see immediate shortages occurring on day one of any disruption to the delivery of our food to its final destination. Likewise, many Americans stockpile little food at home. As a result most Americans are, at most, nine meals away starvation, which is the amount of food that the average person has stored according to FEMA. There are many threats to transportation, but some of the more dramatic threats are as follows: 1. An EMP attack upon America would immediately and almost completely stop any food delivery. 2. A nuclear attack upon the United States. Such an attack would also contain an EMP component to it which is a significant byproduct of a nuclear attack. 3. The spread of a pandemic, such as Ebola, would created a shortage of food deliveries caused by the fear that people would have about going out in public. One word to the wise, only report to a public facility as a last resort to obtain food. What would happen should the facility (e.g. sports stadium, shopping mall or FEMA camp runs out of food? How would they replenish their supplies? Do you think that once the food ran out, that the prevailing authority would open the gates and allow the hungry masses to run through the streets desperately looking for their next meal? Or, is it more likely that these centers could become what we came to know as soylent green centers in the 1973 classic move by the same name? Is it really so unimaginable?

Bill Weather (fortydreamz.blogspot.com): I dreamed someone had left the door to our home unlocked and a thief was there waiting to break in. He broke in and had a crow bar. I too had a crow bar and we began to fight. I got the upper hand on this man and beat him with the crow bar. I beat him into the basement of the house. From the basement of the house, he grabbed a long sharp object on a pole and began to try to jab me from below. I struggled for a bit to find something that could reach down below to try to stop him. I then found a pole and began to beat him in the basement from above. Finally, he was knocked unconscious and I went below to see if I had killed him or just knocked him unconscious.
When I went below, he was not there. In the dream I was married and my wife came along to inquire of this thief. He had disappeared, but then out of no where he came back, all deformed from me beating him and began again to try to beat me. I then beat him so bad, that the flesh of his skin wasn't there and he looked like a walking corpse. Finally, he was so bloody and bed ridden and my wife was there by his bed side, listening to him compassionately. As the thief laid in a death bed, he was speaking to my wife so eloquently.
During the first part of the fight, I had called the police, but they said they couldn't come, so I had to continue to fight this thief with the crow bar. I was also looking at his car, trying to find the license plate, so I could report him, but never did see what the license plate read.
As my wife stood by the thief in his death bed, he was talking to her, as though he were a wise, polite, Englishman, like an eloquent soft spoken James Bond of some sort. I left them both and went back to the house.
There at the house, it became an apartment. Throughout the dream, the house was, at times, a multi level apartment and at times, a home. As I return home to the apartment/home, a tenant came thru the back door. She was a tenant from below and was a very tall Chinese woman, with short black hair, like my wife's hair was, in the dream.
When I came home, I had found my dog in the kitchen. The previous day, I had beaten my dog and one of the eyes of the dog was all swollen shut and he had nicks and cuts on his face. I looked at him with compassion and asked if he wanted me to feed him. He then walked out of the kitchen and went to the floor below. When I pursued him, he was gushing with tears. Then my wife came from just by the bed side of the thief and was inquiring why I was so hard on the dog.
Interpretation:
When I awoke out of this dream, I had no idea what it meant and had to pray, pray, pray. I knew this dream was from God because I could remember every detail of it. From prayer, all I could hear at first was "old man" and dog being spelt the opposite of God; then the details with interpretation quickly emerged in prayer so now, by the Spirit, I type it to you.
The thief is metaphorical for "the old man", that former life and old man of sin in whom, the word of God in the scriptures commands us to be dead to, to kill him, to be crucified with Christ, so that Christ might be director of our lives and not the old man of the flesh, who is a thief, stealing our inheritance to come, in the Kingdom.
The wife is the church. The wife in this dream had short black hair and was slightly taller than me. This is similar to that wife of the last dream, from The Pure Bride dream, her height being her exalting herself above me (the husband representing Christ), and short black hair, representing lack of covering (the hair is covering) and its color representing spiritual darkness.
The fight with the thief (the old man) is that struggle we all have or had to go thru to overcome the old sin nature in order to be made new and to walk with Christ in the Spirit. The old man of flesh is always trying to re-emerge to try to kill us. Even after beating him below, he will come at us with anything and everything. We must never give up the fight till he is completely dead!
Beating him above and then beating him below, from the basement and then beating him again in the basement is a representation of three stages of our fight with the old man/sin nature. Many Christians have only beaten the old man into the basement, but he is still alive! We must continue to fight him, as I did in the dream and fight him from above, then go down and make sure he is dead or he will come back to try to kill us! Many Christians are only weakening the thief and are not completely killing him to the point of confining him paralyzed, to his death bed.
He is a thief because he is robbing us of our eternal reward. Each time we give into the flesh and take for ourselves any benefit of this life beyond what we need, we feed the flesh, the old man and each time, he robs from us, from eternal rewards awaiting us. Instead of enjoying simple inexpensive things of this life and giving thanks for that, some Christians are heaping for themselves expensive earthly treasure and calling it “investment”, when it is merely stored in a barn that's going to soon, burn to the ground. They could support orphanages, help individuals struggling to get by, or use it for evangelism, but are not.
I, looking for the license plate on his car and not finding it, is the hidden identity of the old man that can sometimes be hard to discern. Due to the human heart bent on sin, it can perpetuate self deception and identifying parts of the old man to kill him, can sometimes be a challenge.
I, calling the police to come is representive of when we are in the struggle to kill the old man, we can sometimes try to rely on pastors or others or other vices to kill the old man, but they cannot come to help, like as the police. We cannot rely on others. This is a battle that only you with the power of God can fight. You must never do blame shifting for the desires of your own heart that can sometimes resurrect the old man. You must be honest and fight the good fight and kill him or he will steal from you your heavenly reward! Only a truly honest heart and one full of the humility of confession and yielding to the Spirit and the word, can discern every detail of the old man, to kill him.
The crow bar is a tool used by thieves to break in and enter. Tell your old man, “Live by the crow bar? Die by the crow bar!”
My wife in the dream is representive of a part of today's church, having compassion on the thief/old man in his death bed. When my wife (the church) should have been joining me in the fight, she instead, chose to listen to his eloquent, double oo seven words of deceit. The thief does not come openly and appear as a demon sometimes. He often comes in wise words of deception and cloaked in politeness. The church is catering to his death in a way that is prolonging the old man's life. People of God, you must repent and stop prolonging the flesh and catering to the life of the old man! Kill him!
The residence being sometimes an apartment and sometimes our home, is a piece from another dream God gave me called The Shallow Wife, wherein, the church has become a shallow place of commerce, instead of a home for the saints. The wife had degraded the House of God, which was a home, into an apartment and is too concerned with appeasing men and being popular, like in the dream The Shallow Wife.
In this case, my wife's appealing to the old man in his death bed, is catering to the flesh and appeasing men of the flesh in their fallen state, and listening to the words of the eloquent wisdom of men, instead of preaching the cross and killing the thief, the old man/sin nature.
The very tall Chinese woman near the end of the dream, entering the lower apartment door to our place, being a tenant there, speaks both presently and prophetically, as well as spiritually, economically and politically. The woman was very tall with short black hair. The Chinese invasion to come in WW3 is that woman, who will be exalted in the land for a time (represented by the height) and will bring great darkness (represented by her hair). Presently she is just a tenant, but will in due time, be much more. She will rise up from below, like the thief, to test the saints when her time comes and will rise from below to steal, kill and destroy.
The dog I had beaten earlier, is Yah using a word play here, as God backwards, spells dog. This is when we speak opposite of what God says and this is what was going on in the house/apartment, in the church. People are being like dogs, just living for their flesh and my beating the dog from earlier is representive of punishing the dog, the opposite of what God says. My sudden turn of heart in having compassion for the dog, to feed him, was a rebuke to me as well as whoever else needs it; for yesterday, I had gone to the women's disc golf tournament to see if there were a potential wife for me there and to flirt the field to test it; Yah rebuking me in the Spirit for even trying to open that door in my own way when his plans are presently for me to be single.
The dog was gushing a lot of tears and I felt so sorry for the dog in the dream, but that is how the flesh and opposing God is. It's very deceitful and comes in all sorts of tears for itself. Reminds me of the deceitfulness of socialism and how that can ruin a nation economically, but comes in the name of "compassion" and "liberty" and “kindness.” Also like the tears of a child who always cries for junk food. The tears of the dog should never sway us! He is opposite of what God speaks.
Then my wife (the church), asked why I was so hard on the dog. A part of the church is catering too much to and prolonging the death of the old man/thief and the weeping dogs of furry tears of deception, who oppose the Spirit and the word.
This was the hardest thing for me to take, in the dream, the weeping tears of the dog. It was a beautiful dog too, a very nice orange Labrador Retriever, but that also is representive of how hard it is to die to self and put down the things of the flesh and not to yield to its deceitful nature, so that the purposes of God might be fulfilled in you and your heavenly treasure and inheritance might not be stolen by the thief/old man/sin nature.

Joshua 1:11 "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, `Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, to possess it.´"Hosea 4:1 Listen to the word of the LORD, O sons of Israel, For the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land, Because there is no faithfulness or kindness Or knowledge of God in the land.
2 There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, And also the fish of the sea disappear.

Silver OI fell by only 45 contracts from 149,149 down to 149,104 even though silver was down by 7 cents on Wednesday. We are again losing more short covering from our bankers as the OI refuses to liquidate appreciably despite the low price of silver. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI lower by 3 contracts down to 22 contracts. We had 2 notices served on Wednesday so we lost 1 contract or 5,000 additional oz that will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest fell today by 2,914 contracts from 375,212 down to 372,298 with gold down up by $4.40 on Christmas eve (at the Comex close). We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 299 contracts for a loss of 246 contracts. We had 246 delivery notices served on Wednesday so we neither gained nor lost any gold contracts standing for delivery in the December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 4 contracts down to 472. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell to 220,568 contracts for a loss of 3,674 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was simply awful at 10,638. The confirmed volume on Wednesday was just as bad at 12,489. We had 1 notices filed for 5,000 oz today. It now seems that most of the volume at the Comex is done off hours.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 48,292. The confirmed volume on Wednesday was also poor at 49,218 even although they had some help from our high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 13 notices filed for 1300 oz .

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 1 contract for 5,000 oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 13 contracts of which 13 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2936) x 5,000 oz to which we add the difference between the total OI for the front month of December (22) minus (the number of notices filed today (1) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2936 contracts x 5000 oz + (22) OI for the November contract month – 1 (the number of notices filed today) = 14,785,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We lost 5,000 silver ounces that will not stand for the December silver contract. These were obviously cash settled and then another purchase of a future contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (3095) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (299) minus the # gold notices filed today (13) x 100 oz = 338,100 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.
Thus the initial standings:
3095 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (299) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (13) notices served today equals 338,100 oz or 10.51 tonnes.
We neither gained nor lost any gold ounces standing for the December contract month.
Total dealer inventory: 770,987.09 oz or 23.98 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.959 million oz. (247.58) tonnes)

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 782.00, down 0.76%. WTI February crude was 54.73 down 2.07. Brent crude was 59.45 down 2.24. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.72 down 0.17. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0400 at 2.8100. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0100 at 2.2500. The dollar was up 0.01 at 90.05. The PPT/Dow was 18053.71 up 29.54. Silver closed at 16.09 up 0.30. The GSR was 74.3195 down 0.2150 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 80.78 up 0.17 (0.21%). March wheat was down 24.75 at 610.750. March corn was up 0.75 at 414.75. February lean hogs were down 0.100 at 81.550. March feeder cattle were down 3.375 at 211.900. March copper was down 0.052 at 2.814. January natural gas was down 0.164 at 3.007. February coal was up 0.00 at 49.75.

~~Harvey 29 Dec 2014

Koos Jansen (BullionVault.com): Withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) came in very strong in week 51 at 61 tonnes, year to date the counter has reached 2016 tonnes. Withdrawals from the vaults of the SGE captures Chinese wholesale demand, however, to get a more precise view on demand we have to add SGEI volume to the equation (read this post for a comprehensive explanation on the relationship between SGE withdrawals and volume on the Shanghai International Gold Exchange – SGEI). If we subtract SGEI volume from SGE withdrawals, at least 51 tonnes was withdrawn in week 51, at most 61 tonnes; year to date, at least 1,963 tonnes was withdrawn, at most 2,016 tonnes. I expected withdrawals to be strong in the coming weeks, as December and January are seasonally the strongest months, but the Chinese are often aiming to buy their physical on the dips. In week 49 and 50 withdrawals were a bit held back because of the rising price of gold in renminbi. In week 51 the price was declining, so withdrawals were up.

Russia Today: China and Russia have effectively switched to domestic currencies in trading using financial tools such as swaps and forwards, as they seek to reduce the influence of the US dollar and foreign exchange risks. The agreement signed in the end of October comes into force today and and provides a currency swap of 150 billion Chinese yuan, up to US$25 billion. The country’s Foreign Exchange Trade System will carry out similar transactions with the Malaysian ringgit and the New Zealand dollar. From now on yuan swaps are available for 11 currencies on the foreign exchange market.

Ted Butler (Butler Research): The facts show that JPMorgan took over Bear Stearns and its concentrated short position in Comex silver (and gold) in March 2008 when silver was close to $21, the highest level to that point in 28 years. The price of silver fell from that level in an irregular pattern until late 2010, while JPMorgan both decreased (bought back) much of its concentrated short position on sharp price declines and increased its short Comex silver short position on rallies, as I publicly chronicled all along. At times, JPMorgan’s Comex net short position exceeded 40,000 contracts or the equivalent of 200 million oz. Such a large concentrated position necessarily controlled the price of silver and was, in fact, manipulative on its face. Because it controlled the price of silver, JPMorgan profited handsomely on its Comex manipulation thru 2010 and not even an ongoing five year CFTC investigation interfered with JPM’s control on silver prices. However, in late 2010, investor demand for physical silver caused silver prices to break above the highs of early 2008 and JPMorgan could no longer control the price of silver through excessive paper short selling on the Comex. Physical silver conditions tightened so much by the end of April 2011 that the price reached nearly $50 and, quite literally, JPMorgan (along with other collusive CME traders) were staring into a financial catastrophe, the same as undid Bear Stearns three years earlier. But no bailout of JPMorgan was possible in April 2011 and instead, the bank along with interested parties at the CME Group arranged for a disorderly takedown of silver prices, almost assuredly with the approval of US regulatory officials. The disorderly takedown proved successful and the big shorts, particularly JPMorgan, escaped what would have been an epic financial catastrophe had they been forced to cover their massive silver short positions. It is said that one learns more from failure, especially near disaster, than from success. It is my belief that at the time of JPMorgan’s near catastrophe in being short silver into April 2011 that the bank realized just how limited and critical the supply of silver in the world was and decided to use their near death experience to their advantage. It was at that time that the bank decided to buy as much physical silver as it could in order to profit even more to the upside than it did previously to the downside. Again, it was not possible for me to know this at that time and it has only come to me with the fullness of time and the developing factual evidence. What evidence?

Ted Butler on JPM physical silver purchases: JPMorgan knew that US law dictated that the Mint must produce enough Silver (and Gold) Eagles to meet demand. That law was never intended to allow a single big buyer to demand the extraordinary amount of Silver Eagles that JPMorgan desired to buy, but that’s the purpose behind the exploitation of the law. The Mint sells Silver Eagles at the prevailing price of silver on the day of the sale. In essence, the Comex price of silver is the price of silver. By controlling the price of Comex silver, JPMorgan sets the price at which it will buy Silver Eagles. It’s the perfect crime – JPMorgan sets the price of Comex silver and then demands as many coins as the Mint and its suppliers can produce, even if that means producing the coins on a 24/7 basis. Hey, that’s the law. in May 2011, after the decision was made to accumulate physical silver, the warehouse was activated as a working Comex-approved silver facility and guess what – after starting with zero silver inventory that warehouse has grown to nearly 50 million oz, the largest of all six Comex warehouses. You can decide if this was just a coincidence but the most compelling reason to start a warehouse would be to store silver you owned in your own warehouse rather than to pay some other warehouse to store metal you own. The timeline, in any regard, is remarkable. [ DS: You may recall that the vault was afforded Comex warehouse status in extremely short order. We wondered at the time whose pants were on fire that they needed that vault approved so quickly. It appears that after deciding to accumulate physical silver, they moved very quickly, probably because inventory and time were not in their favor. China and India were buying silver, and it was already in short supply.] I believe much more than 100 million oz of silver, perhaps double or triple that amount have been accumulated by JPMorgan using the SLV to transfer metal to its own London warehouses completely undetected and unreported. With so much physical silver flowing into and out from the Comex warehouses weekly, it would be easy for a big buyer to regularly skim off a continuous share of that physical flow. And this is in complete harmony with my conclusion that the unprecedented Comex warehouse turnover is to due to tight conditions in that the tight conditions are mainly due to JPMorgan’s accumulation of physical silver. Yes, it grates on me that JPMorgan has been able to illegally accumulate as much silver as I suspect and, most particularly, the manner in which that silver was accumulated; but at some point the accumulation should prove most beneficial to silver investors.

Harvey: The big news came from the FRBNY where we witness $64 million dollars worth of gold leave the bank (and New York shores)to repatriate the last amount owing to Holland and most likely Germany resumes her repatriation. This gold is valued at $42.20 per oz and thus 1.516587 million oz (47.17 tonnes) leaves the bank. We know that Holland was to receive its last 3 tonnes in November (they have thus repatriated 122.5 tonnes from the beginning of 2014). Since Germany is the only country that officially has asked for her gold back, you can safely assume that Germany has received 44 tonnes of her 1500 tonne hoard held in NY back to Frankfurt. The repatriation leaves behind a huge mess of derivatives as there is approximately 100 paper obligations per one oz of gold repatriated. (Thus the 47.17 tonnes repatriated leaves behind a mess of 4,700 tonnes of paper obligations (151 million oz). Also the Bloomberg story of a few months ago, that Germany does not wish to repatriate any more of her gold from the USA is totally bogus!! The gold Comex today had a fair delivery day, registering 16 notices served for 1600 oz. Silver Comex registered 0 notices for nil oz. Three months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.58 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest fell by only 668 contracts despite Friday’s silver price rise of 44 cents. Short covering was the object of the exercise today. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 148,436 contracts. The big December silver OI contract lost 2 contracts. It lowers to 20 OI contracts. In gold we had a huge rise in OI with the rise in price of gold on Friday to the tune of $21.80. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 374,019 for a gain of 1721 contracts. The December gold OI rests tonight at 286 contracts losing 13 contracts. GOFO rates moved slightly in both directions for today. The ONE, TWO moved slightly towards the positive direction but still remain negative. The 3 and 6 month GOFO remained constant and the 12 month moved closer to the negative.

Bill Holter (Miles Franklin): How many Americans can live off of the land today? Five percent? Less?
Without credit, nothing will work. Distribution will definitely break down which means after the shelves are cleared, they will not be re stocked. A new currency, one the people can have faith in as well as one that foreigners will accept will by necessity be introduced. How long a banking/system closure takes place is anyone’s guess, however, it is not a guess that a financial panic will engulf the U.S. as well as most of the world. We have lived a fantasy which has also engulfed “values” of all sorts. Asset values, wage values as well as social values. All of these will be re set. I can assure you, the “mindset” of this nation will change more drastically than any time in her history. I believe we will see a major shift in ideology, ethics and faith. If anything good can come from what I believe is coming, it will be this shift in thought process toward truthfulness and godliness. We as a nation have been moved so far down the rabbit hole on purpose to hide what was happening. Our society has been so dumbed down, the really sad part is when the tsunami does hit …the majority will still not understand why. I assume if you are reading this then you already know “why”, your job now is to decide “what?”. “What”? …as in what you should do to prepare the best you can for what is mathematically coming!

Zero Hedge: Up until the Greek presidential vote made headline news, the biggest event of the day was not the full-blown bubble levitation in the Shanghai Composite which rose another 0.33% to a fresh 4 year high of 3,168 on expectations the recent PBOC targated intervention will transform into a full blown rate cut, but the sudden drop in the USDJPY and its first derivative, the Nikkei stock index, which turned negative on Monday after the health ministry announced a suspected case of the deadly Ebola virus, spooking investors but boosting health-related shares. A man who returned to Japan from Sierra Leone on Dec. 23 was suspected of contracting Ebola, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said. Test results are expected by Tuesday morning. If confirmed, it would be the first case positive diagnosis in Asia.

Tyler Durden: Greek Prime Minister Samaras said, “It’s not a question of what’s good for me or New Democracy. It’s best for the country that there are not snap elections.” Translation: you don’t need no stinking democracy, trust us – your benevolent rulers – to do what’s best for the Greek people. *SNAP ELECTIONS WILL THROW GREECE INTO TURMOIL, SAMARAS SAYS (and the ECB). *GREECE’S BIGGEST PROBLEM IS POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY: SAMARAS (not record youth unemployment, povrty, and suicide rates, and surging youth emigration). *SAMARAS SAYS NOW IS TIME FOR LAWMAKERS TO DO THEIR DUTY (ignore the people’s pleas and pain, vote for EU bureaucrats). And with Greece’s (anti-EU) Syriza party now leading by 2.5pts in the latest polls, it is hardly surprising Samaras is pulling out all the ‘turmoil’ threats. “Greek people don’t want elections,” he chides. By ‘Greek people’, we assume he means ‘unelected European bureaucrats’.

Zero Hedge: Funny what a difference two months make. Back on October 4, we wrote “Here We Go Again: Greece Will Be In Default Within 15 Months, S&P Warns” and… nobody cared as the Greek stock market meltup continued. Now, after the biggest three-day rout in Greek stock market history (or about 30% lower), and with the overhyped, oversold, oversusbcribed recent Greek 5 Year bond issue available in the open market some 16 points lower, and suddenly everyone cares. Including Goldman Sachs. Overnight the bank with the $58 trillion in derivative exposure issued a note “From GRecovery to GRelapse” which is quite absent on the usual optimism, cheerfulness and happy-ending we have grown to expect from the bank whose former employee is in charge of the European printing press. Here is the punchline: “In the event of a severe Greek government clash with international lenders, interruption of liquidity provision to Greek banks by the ECB could potentially even lead to a Cyprus-style prolonged “bank holiday”. And market fears for potential Euro-exit risks could rise at that point.“

Tyler Durden: And just like that Grexit is back. In the event that the parliament fails to elect a president, general elections would be held and market uncertainty/pressures would extend. At this stage it is important to understand that market pressures are not linked to the democratic process of elections nor to a potential government change, whatever the ensuing government formation may be.They are linked to the risk of policy discontinuity and a severe clash between Greece and international lenders. More specifically, we think the room for Greece to meaningfully backtrack from the reforms that have already been implemented is very limited. Any such attempt would lead to an interruption of official financing to Greece.

Zero Hedge: The ECB’s hands are tied right now, because the last thing Mario Draghi can do is proceed with open monetization of peripheral bonds (which would have to be purchased in any ECB public QE alongside all other Eurozone bonds) at a time when Greece can pull the rug from under the ECB’s already massive holdings of Greek public debt, and enforce a haircut which would impair the ECB’s balance sheet, in the process costing Mario Draghi his job and a handing the victory to the “sound money” Bundesbank on a silver platter. Worse, should Greece decide to default it would means those several hundred billion Greek bonds currently held in official accounts would go from par to worthless overnight, leading to massive unaccounted for impairments on Europe’s pristine balance sheets, which also confirms that Greece once again has all the negotiating leverage. So with the ECB out of the picture, and with the ball in Greece’s court, it actually makes the situation that much more unstable, and indeed could be just the precursor to the “Cyprus-style bank holiday” that Goldman warned about.

Tyler Durden: China may have mastered the art of fabricating economic data to a level unmatched by anyone except the US Department of Labor, but its derivative countries have much to learn. And none other more so than one of China’s favorite sources of commodities over the past decade: Brazil. It is here that things are going from worse to catastrophic, as disclosed in today’s update of Brazil’s fiscal picture. Here are the disturbing facts showing that behind the world’s propaganda growth facade, it is all hollow: Brazil’s consolidated public sector primary fiscal balance, which posted a significantly worse than expected R$8.1bn primary deficit in November driven by the R$6.7bn deficit of the Central Government, dipped into negative territory: -0.18% of GDP, driven by the significant deterioration of the Central Government finances.

Zero Hedge: Just as T. Boone Pickens warned “watch the rig counts” last week, so the Baker Hughes rig count just collapsed for the 3rd week in a row to 8-month lows. This is the fastest 3-week drop since mid-2009. Crude prices were already weak but the news has flushed WTI to a $52 handle (not seen in the front-month contract since May 2009). Rig count is tumbling…

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Michael Snyder (EndOfTheAmericanDream): 10. ANOTHER FUKUSHIMA. The Fukushima nuclear disaster showed all of us how a single natural disaster can absolutely cripple a nuclear reactor. And of course things are still not under control at Fukushima. It is already the greatest nuclear disaster in human history, and it is still releasing even more nuclear material into the environment every single day. Once this material gets into the food chain, it can silently kill for generations. The following comes from an opinion piece by Helen Caldicott that was published in the Guardian…Internal radiation, on the other hand, emanates from radioactive elements which enter the body by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Hazardous radionuclides such as iodine-131, caesium 137, and other isotopes currently being released in the sea and air around Fukushima bio-concentrate at each step of various food chains (for example into algae, crustaceans, small fish, bigger fish, then humans; or soil, grass, cow’s meat and milk, then humans). After they enter the body, these elements – called internal emitters – migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, where they continuously irradiate small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years, can induce uncontrolled cell replication – that is, cancer. Further, many of the nuclides remain radioactive in the environment for generations, and ultimately will cause increased incidences of cancer and genetic diseases over time. So what happens one day when a catastrophic natural disaster in the United States or elsewhere in the world causes several “Fukushimas” at the same time? That is something to think about.

Bill Weather (FortyDreamz.blogspot.com): The 7th of October 1966 was the beginning of the first week in the cycle of 7s. Each cycle has ended in financial chaos. The 15th of September 2015 marks the end of the 7th cycle. Since the economic crisis has been so consistent at the end of these Shemitahs (7 year cycles), what's makes anyone think 2015 will be different? Once the economy collapses, it will lead into revolution, riots, violence and destructions with a police state, then into WW3. This message is for urban friends. They need to ban together to find and prepare a bug out location, do some camping trips to prepare and practice their coordination of escape. Everyone should have an emergency kit they can take with them. In this dream I saw back packs. Get a big enough back pack you can carry with supplies, big enough, but not too big. You want lots of survival type supplies and off the grid living items, enough to be a good weight, but not too much that you can't carry. Coordinate with friends on who's supplying what, so your camp does not have lack of something needed to survive. I discern this dream is focused on the 20-30 somethings group in urban areas, who are presently not prepared to face what's to come. This is God's plan for them, to ban together and help each other survive. God really cares and he's trying to stir some people with this dream to be prepared, but the words of warning are often falling on ears of doubt and unbelief, so then, people do not prepare with their friends. Of course, I don't rely on signs in what appears of the natural alone because God has confirmed to me in multiple ways this year of 2015 trouble coming years before learning of the Shemitahs, but this Shemitah cycle is a God made time line in the natural for us to see, we must get ready! This will not be just another crash. The US is 18 trillion in debt. This is going to lead to an implosion. At the end of this ponzi economy quadrillions of derivatives, bonds, t-bills and other paper assets are going to be sold off for tangible resources (food and supplies) when the panic ensues, and the result will be it all crashes in violence. God wants you to be prepared. You URBAN friends are in danger and unprepared for what is coming. You are not even paying attention and seeing the need and that day is soon going to begin to creep up on you unawares. You will listen to your pastors and TV talking heads tell you to remain calm, but this does not prepare you. God uses fear to prepare us. God did this with Noah and Joseph. As the scripture states, Noah moved with fear to prepare the ark (Hebrews 11:7). Joseph was warned in dreams and prepared grain supply to make it thru the famine (their economic collapse).

J. D. Heyes (NaturalNews): A number of acute-care hospitals closed across the United States last year -- 18 to be exact -- and experts who see a raft of new regulatory processes being heaped upon the healthcare industry in the coming years, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, believe that a wave of additional closures are ahead.As noted by WorldNetDaily, a dozen more hospitals have closed in the U.S. so far this year in rural areas alone; more are getting ready to be shuttered. But Dr. Lee Hieb, M.D., says this is just the beginning. "Events happening now give us some idea of what medicine will be reduced to in the future," she wrote in her upcoming book, Surviving the Medical Meltdown: Your Guide to Living Through the Disaster of Obamacare, which is being published by WND Books. "Today, all over America, small and midsize hospitals as well as hospitals in inner-city, poor areas are closing," Hieb, an orthopedic surgeon and past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, wrote. Learn more: https://www.naturalnews.com/048141_Obamacare_hospital_closures_health_ca...

Live Free Or Die (ANP): Russia has launched a deathblow against ‘the West’ and the NWO globalists by launching their own ‘SWIFT’ payment system to go against the ‘global banking system’ with a mid-to-late-2015 full implementation that aligns perfectly with a warning recently given by ‘elite insider’ Lindsey Williams according to the brand new video below from Realist News. While the 2nd video below from MrCati gives us an update on the assassination attempt against Vladimir Putin just months ago, Realist News proves to us why any sanctions against Russia by the West were merely assuring the US and dollar would take the return shot straight to the face, a shot that will likely bring the entire system crashing down within the next 9 months as the world rejects the US dollar, abandons the West and joins up with the ‘still very much alive’ Vladimir Putin as they prepare to bring the NWO global banking system to its’ knees.

Bob Owens (BearingArms.com): A Durham police officer dove for cover Thursday night after a man walked up and began shooting at him, police said Friday. The incident happened about 10 p.m. on Lakeland Street, just north of Truman Street. Police said Officer J.T. West was sitting in his patrol car, working on a report, when he saw two men approaching his car from behind. As West got out of the car to speak to them, one of the men pulled out a gun and began firing, police said. The man fired six shots at West, striking the patrol car once. West fired two rounds in return. Police said it wasn’t known if West wounded either of the men. West injured his wrist when he dove behind a staircase at a vacant apartment building at 1414 Lakeland St. He was treated at a nearby hospital and released. Police said West and the men, who ran from the scene, never exchanged words. The attempted assassination mimicked the tactics used to murder NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on December 20. The Baltimore gang member who killed those walked up on the right rear of the officers’ marked police car and opened fire without warning. The gang member in that instance—who committed suicide minutes later in a subway as authorities closed in—cited the deaths of Michael Brown an Eric Garner as his excuse to “put pigs in a blanket.”

Peter Lvov (New Eastern Outlook): But in August, when the Islamic State was stabilized, the White House officials started to apply pressure on Saudi Arabia yet again, which resulted in the sharp decline in oil prices. The dirty game began when the Saudis started selling oil at a price lower than the market’s, which resulted in a daily price collapse. At the same time Washington announced its readiness to flood the markets with its shale oil, although these claims were false, since the actual shale reserves of the US are half as big as it was announced. Riyadh sang in tune with the US, by claiming that the increase in oil exports, has nothing to do with Russia. It must be admitted that the Russian economic experts and financial departments have panicked for a brief while. At some point it seemed that the ruble was about to crumble as the oil prices dropped lower and lower. But then the situation changed. The United Kingdom, that was playing a part in the conspiracy Russia announced that the cost of oil production in the North Sea didn’t allow them to get more than 2 dollars of profit per barrel sold. British Petroleum has sounded the alarm by announcing that it was on the verge of stopping oil production. And there’s still Norway, which is also extracting oil in the North Sea. European allies of the US have lost all desire to pay for the political ambitions of Washington, that was eager to go after Moscow. But what’s even more important – the Saudi kingdom started to crumble. An wave of terrorist attacks spread across the Eastern Province, while the internal Shia–Sunni conflict became more tense. The local ruling elite, that had lost their revenues, have started to become increasingly frustrated with the actions of Al Saud family. A drastic drop in social security funding has caused massive unrest among the common people of the KSA. Against this background that ISIL has announced that it is expanding it operational area in Saudi Arabia. But the last drop that got on Riyadh’s nerves was the US secret plans to sign an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program in February-March 2015. And then one could kiss sanctions against Iran good-bye. What this basically means is that Saudi Arabia will lost its position of Washington’s key partner in the Middle East. It was about time for Saudi Arabia to “give a reply”to the White House as they stopped dropping oil prices. The Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali al-Naimi has issued a statement on December 19, in which he stated that the cooperation within OPEC will be restored. According to Ali al-Naimi, oil prices will go up since oil the is still the primary source of energy for decades to come, so the black gold market must be reanimated. However, Washington was quick to step in and force Saudi Arabia into doing what it was told to do. That is why Ali al-Naimi had to drastically change his position in the matter of days, on December 23 he stated that: “It is not in the interest of OPEC producers to cut their production, whatever the price is. Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant, the world might not see the oil price back at $100 a barrel again.” The Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources believes that the budgets of the Gulf countries are able to withstand a long period of declining prices. First, according to the Minister, the offshore projects in Brazil, West Africa and the Arctic are to cut their production since the price is going to make them unprofitable. What is certain however is that high-efficiency producers will rule the market in the future,’ concluded Ali al-Naimi. What can be added to this statement since this statement is an official recognition of unfriendly Saudi actions against Russia. But Washington has lost all the same. The pillars of Russia’s economy haven’t crumbled, therefore Barack Obama is left with nothing better to do than watch the strengthening ruble and the gradual economic stabilization in Russia. For sure, Moscow and Russian people have both paid the price for Russia’s dependence on oil and gas sales . But at this point no Russian politician will have no illusions about the nature of US actions and the actions of its European and Saudi allies. It is also clear that it’s imperative to build a different economy, that will be less dependent on the West. As for Saudi Arabia it must draw one conclusion: there’s no need to pay for the other countries’ games against Russia, especially when the King and the Crown Prince are on their last legs, while ISIL militants are planning the invasion of Saudi Arabia. As of now, Saudi Arabia is following the path that can only lead to the consequent collapse of the ruling royal regime. America is ready to sacrifice its ally only to try to hurt Russian economy just a little bit more.

Silver OI fell by 668 contracts from 149,104 down to 148,436 even though silver was up by 44 cents on Friday. Short covering by the banks was no doubt in full force on Friday. The big December active contract month saw it’s OI lower by 2 contracts down to 20 contracts. We had 1 notices served on Friday so we lost 1 contract or 5,000 additional oz that will not stand.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest rose today by 1,721 contracts from 372,298 all the way up to 374,018 with gold up by $21.80 on Friday (at the Comex close). This is what one would expect with such a sharp rise in price. We are now into the big December contract month where the number of OI standing for the gold metal registers 286 contracts for a loss of 13 contracts. We had 13 delivery notices served on Friday so we neither gained nor lost any gold contracts standing for delivery in the December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 27 contracts down to 445. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI rose to 222,140 contracts for a gain of 1,572 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was simply awful at 10,050. The confirmed volume on Friday was just as bad at 18,115. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today. It now seems that most of the volume at the Comex is done off hours.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 41,102. The confirmed volume on Friday was also poor at 71,015 even although they had some help from our high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 16 notices filed for 1600 oz.

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts for nil oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 16 contracts of which 16 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (3111) x 100 oz to which we add the difference between the OI for the front month of December (286) minus the # gold notices filed today (16) x 100 oz = 338,100 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.

Thus the initial standings:
3111 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) + (286) the number of OI notices for the front month of December served upon – (16) notices served today equals 338,100 oz or 10.51 tonnes.
We neither gained nor lost any gold ounces standing for the December contract month.
Total dealer inventory: 770,987.09 oz or 23.98 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.895 million oz. (245.58) tonnes)

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 782.00, down 0.76%. WTI February crude was 53.63 down 1.10. Brent crude was 57.88 down 1.57. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.25 down 0.47. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0300 at 2.7800. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0400 at 2.2100. The dollar was up 0.16 at 90.21. The PPT/Dow was 18038.23 down 15.48. Silver closed at 15.81 down 0.28. The GSR was 74.8008 up 0.4813 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 80.02 down 0.76 (0.94%). March wheat was up 4.75 at 615.500. March corn was down 2.00 at 412.75. February lean hogs were up 0.250 at 81.800. March feeder cattle were up 3.775 at 215.675. March copper was up 0.008 at 2.822. February natural gas was up 0.192 at 3.199. February coal was down 0.52 at 49.23.

~~Harvey 30 Dec 2014

Mark O'Byrne (GoldCore): Greece’s financial markets are in turmoil again as a vote in parliament – failing to elect a new president – made a general election inevitable. Greek markets saw severe sell offs , with yields on Greek government bonds rising and shares prices collapsing 13% at one point yesterday and closing 7% lower on the day. Greek bank shares collapsed by even more. Two of Greece’s largest banks, Piraeus bank and Alpha bank, shed more than 14% of their share value as concerns of bank solvency, bank runs and Cyprus style bail-ins reemerged. The Greek result led to sell offs in Spain and Italy, which narrowly escaped the sovereign debt crisis that led to Greece’s 2010 bailout. Spanish and Italian bond yields rose, pushing Madrid’s IBEX stock market down 1 percent while Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 1.2 percent. Greece and the risk of new Eurozone debt crisis will now – again – be a key focus for investors in 2015. The question now is whether this will lead to wider market volatility across Europe in the run up to the Greek general election, due on January 25th, and, more importantly, what will happen after the election. Tsipras was quick to try to allay fears that Greeks may have about the specter Goldman raised of a “Cyprus-Style” bank-holiday, in other words the verboten word “bail-ins. A Syriza government and its allies will safeguard – without any footnotes or asterisks – the deposits of citizens at Greek banks, in cooperation with the European Central Bank and European partners. Let’s put an end to the horror stories.” However, it could be that the fear-mongering of the past few weeks may become self-fulfilling prophecies if Greeks decide that their cash is safer under the mattress than in a risky Greek bank earning little or no interest. DS: My take on the Greek crisis is that it is doing pretty much what the elites want it to. All indications are that the elites plan on pulling the plug in 2015 and the Greek financial situation is one of many plugs that will be pulled in bringing down the house of cards. After all, if Brussels can replace Silvio Berlusconi in Italy and replace him with their unelected guy Mario Monti, I don't see why they can't do pretty much as they please anywhere. IMO, the crisis in Europe are window dressing while they plunder the continent. They can paper over any problem till they are ready to pull the plug.

Chris Powell (GATA): Governments, market analyst John Ing said today, have become even more leveraged than the private financial sector was in 2008, and the plunge in oil prices threatens a blowup in derivatives.

Chris Powell (GATA): Sprott Asset Management’s John Embry today gave his view of the forthcoming year, wherein central banks create infinite money to prevent markets from happening but plunge the world into hyperinflation.

Harvey: The gold Comex today had a fair delivery day, registering 270 notices served for 27,000 oz. Silver Comex registered 39 notices for 195,000 oz. Three months ago the Comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.58 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period. In silver, the open interest rose by 1,598 contracts despite Monday’s silver price fall of 37 cents. Short covering was again the attempted object of the exercise today. The total silver OI still remains relatively high with today’s reading at 150,034 contracts. The big December silver OI contract is now off the board. In gold we had a huge fall in OI with the fall in price of gold yesterday to the tune of $13.60. The total Comex gold OI rests tonight at 368,899 for a loss of 5120 contracts. The December gold contract is now off the board. No doubt we are now seeing central banks no longer trust each other as confidence falters. As Bill Holter constantly reminds us, this is the biggest run on the banking system, the repatriation of one’s gold. Germany is going to have a tough time explaining why Holland received its 122.5 tonnes before Germany got hers with a further question as to why it is taking longer to repatriate Germany’s gold with the added fact that Holland got their gold in less than one year. Today, we had another loss of 1.49 tonnes of gold inventory from the GLD whose inventory is now 710.81 tonnes. In silver, there was a small loss of 574,000 oz of inventory. SLV’s inventory rests tonight at 329.564 million oz. GOFO rates were negative but increasing.

Zero Hedge: as a result of persistently lower gold prices, driven down by a seemingly endless supply of paper gold (in the form of ETF selling and Bank of International Settlement “price discovery“) offsetting a seemingly unbridled appetite for physical gold, not only is one of the biggest marginal suppliers of gold – Chinese producers – about to take an extended hiatus, but first one and then many “developed” gold miners are about to throw in the towel. As UBS’ Shanghai analyst Lin Haoxiang said, “Falling prices are cutting into some high-cost private mines in China, while some big miners chose to reduce costs by reducing jobs and capital investments.” As for the North American gold miner defaults, they have already started with Canada’s San Gold warning its creditors it is about to stuff them with a lot of unrepayable paper. When on looks at the gold industry’s “all-in sustaining costs”, and takes net debt and the interest due on it into consideration, it becomes clear why gold has managed to find the $1050-$1200 region as support: drop the price of gold below that and suddenly 90% of the entire gold industry becomes unprofitable. None of which means that gold can’t – or want – drop below any given price, or slide into the triple digits. As we showed earlier, the new normal “markets” are so rigged -with the blessing of central banks no less – that attempting any rational predictions, especially when it comes to the one substance most hated by central bankers through the ages, is painfully meaningless. And we are confident that before all is said and done, gold will surely plunge to even further manipulated lows because in the current market, where one can create paper gold futures contracts out of thin air, there is nothing to prevent just that. When all is said and done, gold production will be far lower in a few years than where it is now. The only question is how will central bankers orchestrate a parallel decline for physical gold, because even with all the paper manipulation in the world, the supply and demand curves for the underlying commodity can be ignored only for so long. DS: There's not going to be a few more years. The bankers are using what little gold remains topside along to acquire the assets of the world. When they have most of it, they will crash the global economy in 2015, thin the herd with war and no food, and take possession of what's left of humans as techno serfs with no where to go and no way to hide. At least that's the plan. God has another view of what to do with what survives, and I am sure it will not be to the bankers' liking.

Koos Jansen (BullionVault.com): The Netherlands (and likely Germany as well) made concrete plans in 2012 to switch to a new currency in case the euro would crash. Not long after the emergency currency was ready the Dutch began repatriating 122.5 tonnes of gold from New York. This can be very important as there is a possibility the Eurocrisis will ignite again. Monday we learned Greece will have new elections on January 25 that could bring the anti-bailout Syriza party to power, risking Greece’s membership of the Eurozone. Klaas Knot confirmed The Netherlands could switch to a new currency in 2012 if the euro would crash.

Koos Jansen on Draghi's "whatever it takes" remark: According to US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner the remarks were “off-the-cuff” and “totally impromptu”. Snippets from the transcript: Geithner: Things deteriorated again dramatically in the summer which ultimately led to him saying in August, these things I would never write, but he off-the-cuff – he was in London at a meeting with a bunch of hedge funds and bankers. He was troubled by how direct they were in Europe, because at that point all the hedge fund community thought that Europe was coming to an end. I remember him telling me [about] this afterwards, he was just, he was alarmed by that and decided to add to his remarks, and off-the-cuff basically made a bunch of statements like ‘we’ll do whatever it takes’. Ridiculous. Interviewer: This was just impromptu? Geithner: Totally impromptu…. I went to see Draghi, and Draghi at that point, he had no plan. He had made this sort of naked statement of this stuff. But they stumbled into it. As Jean-Claude Juncker, former Eurogroup leader, said in 2011 On Greece’s economic meltdown: When it becomes serious, you have to lie. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Europe was saved by a firm lie. Global economics is increasingly influenced by speeches from central bankers; only words, true or false. They don’t even have to take the effort to create billions in fiat currency units with the stroke of a keyboard; the threat to flood the system with money is sufficient to steer financial markets. These are the fundamentals of our global economy today, which are terribly weak. Some policy makers know this – the ones that buy or repatriate gold.

Zero Hedge: Greece may be on the verge of a Grexit, crude may be taking out all key technical support levels, and US stocks will still close higher. But let the USDJPY slide and watch as the levitation ends with a bang. And tumble overnight is precisely what the USDJPY did, pushing not only the Nikkei lower by 1.6% but also leading to what is shaping up to be an unrecord, also known as red, open in the S&P – this surely calls for a “Markets in Turmoil” flashing siren on the 9th floor of the New York Fed. Why? it is unclear what caused the drop: was it just a delayed reaction to yesterday’s market unmoving events out of Greece and commodity land, but several billion in option expirations pinned around 120 certainly helped. Just add an extremely illiquid market and watch how a determined seller can move the pair by over 100 pips in a few hours.

Tyler Durden: China’s Leading Index has fallen to its lowest since Feb 2009 this evening, down 4 straight months from credit-driven 18 month highs. This economic weakness has exaggerated the already weak tone in Yuan trading this evening pushing CNY to its weakest in almost 7 months (against the USD), its furthest on record from the CNY Fix (10-month highs), and very close to the PBOC’s upper +2% band for CNY trading. At 6.23, USDCNY is over 1000 pips weaker than the CNY fix. We suspect the weakness in Yuan is also driven by further corruption crackdowns as China will require VIP gamblers in Macau to undergo a record check. This extremely strange trading behavior (as JPY also pushes to cycle lows) corresponds to the surge in mainland China stocks (and slide in Hong Kong stocks)… SHCOMP +54%, HSI unchanged since QE-Lite.

Maxim Nikitin (ITAR-TASS): According to the National Bank Chief, inflation has reached 21% by November since the start of the year. Ukraine’s GDP shrank by 7.5% and inflation reached 21% by November since the start of the year, National Bank Chief Valeriya Gontareva said on Tuesday. “The country has seen a GDP fall by 7.5% and actually 100% devaluation. Using economic terms, this is called a 50-percent devaluation (for the hryvnia). Inflation has reached 21% by November since the start of the year,” she said. In the current conditions, it is impossible to keep a stable hryvnia exchange rate, the National Bank head said. “This is simply an unrealistic task (to maintain exchange rate stability) because it is not even prescribed in any constitution,” she said. “The exchange rate of our currency relative to our trade partners is a mirror of the state of our economy and our balance of payments,” she said. Ukraine is hit by a “full-scale financial crisis,” National Bank Chief admitted. “The level of gold and foreign exchange reserves has reached its minimum of $9.9 billion as of early December since 2009,” she said.

Zero Hedge: Two days ago we reported of the odd coincidence of a 2nd emergency shutdown at Ukraine’s Zaporozhye Nuclear reactor – Europe’s largest nuclear power plant -following our earlier fears of disinformation. Today, we get information of a leaked report sourced from three different place – unconfirmed for now (but RT is trying to verify) – that Ukrainian nuclear scientists misled the public and a radioactive leak has been detected – citing the country’s emergency services claiming that levels of radiation are 16.3 times the legally permitted norm. Ukrainian nuclear scientists misinformed the public and the media about the real state of affairs in the Zaporizhzhya NPP. The Internet got a summary of the State Service for Emergency Situations of the 28 and 29 December, which refute the assurances leadership Zaporizhzhya that the sixth unit was put into operation in the evening on 28 December. In addition, the permissible level of radiation at the plant, according to the measurements, was above the norm by 16 times.

Tyler Durden: As the crowd in Moscow grows to an estimated 10-15,000 protesters chanting “No Putin, No War”, Russia has unleashed police in riot gear, apparently fearful of the consequences of this ‘unlawful’ assembly. The massive crowd of protesters gathered in Moscow’s Manezhka Square on Tuesday, following the guilty verdict of anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny, remain peaceful for now; but scuffles are breaking out and tensions are rising. Reuters: Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil company, could be declared in technical default on some of its foreign debt as early as Tuesday if bondholders pursue efforts to force it to speed up its assessment of losses in a giant corruption scandal. The push, led by New York-based Aurelius Capital, applies to $54 billion of Petrobras bonds governed by U.S. law in New York state. Aurelius, a “distressed debt” fund, is asking investors to put the company into default as “a precautionary step,” according to a Dec. 29 letter from the firm reviewed by Reuters. Under the terms of those bonds, Petrobras (PETR4.SA) is required to provide third-quarter financial statements within 90 days of the end of a quarter, in this case by Monday, Dec. 29. Petrobras has not published those accounts because allegations of contract-fixing and bribery at the company have raised doubts about the true value of its assets.

This Will Not End Well (In The Short Term)

Susan Duclos: In the video ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=54g1C4HugJA ) by EarthshiftX we see USGS data in a New Madrid Seismic Update, along with evidence of "strong and rare" earthquakes, as well as proof of some type of event is causing a massive increase in frequency of earthquakes of all magnitudes. The information provided in the video is literally shocking, but the comparison the videographer provides around the middle, which they claim is "jaw-dropping," will truly blow your mind. Even after seeing the screen shot provided in the video, it is almost impossible to wrap your mind around it. What EarthshiftX shows are two very simple searches, one for 1980 which shows a total of 16 earthquakes at magnitudes 1.0 - 3.0, then does a search for 2014 as a comparison, to which an error shows that states "The current selection includes 56875 earthquakes, which is more than is allowed." Our videographer believes these increases in activity is due to the approach of Planet X aka Nibiru and whether one agrees with his conclusion or not, the numbers are indicative of something huge happening, with year after year increases, to which many might explain different ways, but the data itself is indisputable. In a warning in the details of the video he says, "Expect weather extremes to increase more as we head into 2015, and watch Indonesia for quakes."

Bill Weather (EconomicCrash2015.blogspot.com): [ DS: Bill Weather did a video of seven indicators the crash will come in 2015. ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky-KzEaOCB4&feature=share&list=UUXHTOXLxTYwSU4ui... ). What follows is the 3rd of the 7 signs. ] Our 3rd sign to watch for is from an incredible 3 part prophecy, from brother John W Johnston, at unitedstatesprophecy.com, which was given back in 1981. Now in this prophecy, 2 parts of it, have already come to pass, with the 3rd part, yet to come, and in that prophecy it says that when the 3rd part comes to pass, that is when, the economic collapse of America will come. The 1st part of this prophecy, was that the Berlin Wall would fall. 8 years later, it happened. The 2nd part of this prophecy is that Russia would take a severe blow, then recover..... that certainly has happened. So the 3rd part of this prophecy, is that after Fidel Castro dies, then shall come the collapse of the economic system of the US. How long would it take after Fidel Castro dies, till we see the economic collapse? Could it be weeks, or months later. We can't tell, but here is a timing to watch for..... If we see the death of Fidel Castro sometime in the spring or summer of 2015, then that would be a very strong sign aligning with the others signs here, to watch out for that summer or end of summer season of time. So I am watching very closely how Fidel Castro is doing. Remember, Fidel Castro is 87 years old, so he doesn't have much time left, and based on this prophecy, the economic system doesn't have much time left either.

Walid and Theodore Shoebat (Shoebat.com): A major talk was organized in Konya the birth place of Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu and in his presence before a jubilant crowd shouting in Nazi style. Davutoğlu can be seen to be elated by the statements spoken by the leader of Hamas, Khalid Mashal. The fiery speech hailed Turkey led by Erdogan and Davutoğlu as the representative and head of the entire Muslim world and praised him for the soon invasion of Jerusalem in the coming world war. DS: Isaiah 10:24ff has a description of a coming invasion from Syria that comes from the Golan Heights down to Jerusalem at which point they are interdicted, put to flight and destroyed by divine intervention. Parallel accounts can also be found in Isaiah 17, Jeremiah 30 and Psalms 83. Also, Rick Wiles had Sundar Selvaraj on a show on 6 Aug 14 in which Selvaraj said God had been sending him on a mission to Israel to help them prepare for a war that's coming soon https://allnewspipeline.com/IndianProphetFortellsRussian.php. Isaiah 17 shows Damascus being destroyed while Israel at the same time is completely flattened and most of the population killed. I have been saying for several years that WWIII kicks off when the Iranian alliance invades Israel. At the same time Iran invades, they set off an EMP over America. The Russians also launch SLBMs against major American cities. Russia and China then invade.

ANH-USA: Roundup Causes Autism says top MIT Scientist. Evidence points to glyphosate toxicity from the overuse of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide on our food. For over three decades, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, has researched biology and technology, over the years publishing over 170 scholarly peer-reviewed articles. In recent years she has concentrated on the relationship between nutrition and health, tackling such topics as Alzheimer’s, autism, and cardiovascular diseases, as well as the impact of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxins on human health. At a conference last Thursday, in a special panel discussion about GMOs, she took the audience by surprise when she declared, “At today’s rate, by 2025, one in two children will be autistic.” She noted that the side effects of autism closely mimic those of glyphosate toxicity, and presented data showing a remarkably consistent correlation between the use of Roundup on crops (and the creation of Roundup-ready GMO crop seeds) with rising rates of autism. Children with autism have biomarkers indicative of excessive glyphosate, including zinc and iron deficiency, low serum sulfate, seizures, and mitochondrial disorder.

Dr. Paul Craig Robers (PaulCraigRoberts.org): The conflict that Washington has initiated between the West and Russia/China is reckless and irresponsible. Nuclear war could be the outcome. Indeed, Washington has been preparing for nuclear war since the George W. Bush regime. Washington has revised US war doctrine in order to initiate conflict with a first strike nuclear attack. Washington has discarded the ABM treaty in order to build and deploy anti-ballistic missiles that are intended to prevent a retaliatory strike against the US. Washington is engaged in a buildup of military forces on Russia’s borders, and Washington is demonizing Russia’s government with false charges.

Michael Snyder (EndOfTheAmericanDream): The following are 12 disasters that could bring about the end of the world as we know it: #11. A MASSIVE ERUPTION AT THE YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLANO. Around the globe, there are some volcanoes that are so absolutely massive in size that they are referred to as “supervolcanoes”. One of these supervolcanoes is in the United States. The following facts about the Yellowstone supervolcano come from one of my previous articles…
#1 A full-scale eruption of Yellowstone could be up to 1,000 times more powerful than the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
#2 A full-scale eruption of Yellowstone would spew volcanic ash 25 miles up into the air.
#3 The next eruption of Yellowstone seems to be getting closer with each passing year. Since 2004, some areas of Yellowstone National Park have risen by as much as 10 inches.
#4 There are approximately 3,000 earthquakes in the Yellowstone area every single year.
#5 In the event of a full-scale eruption of Yellowstone, virtually the entire northwest United States will be completely destroyed.
#6 A massive eruption of Yellowstone would mean that just about everything within a 100 mile radius of Yellowstone would be immediately killed.
#7 A full-scale eruption of Yellowstone could also potentially dump a layer of volcanic ash that is at least 10 feet deep up to 1,000 miles away.
#8 A full-scale eruption of Yellowstone would cover virtually the entire midwest United States with volcanic ash. Food production in America would be almost totally wiped out.
#9 The “volcanic winter” that a massive Yellowstone eruption would cause would radically cool the planet. Some scientists believe that global temperatures would decline by up to 20 degrees.
#10 America would never be the same again after a massive Yellowstone eruption. Some scientists believe that a full eruption by Yellowstone would render two-thirds of the United States completely uninhabitable.
#11 Scientists tell us that it is not a matter of “if” Yellowstone will erupt but rather “when” the next inevitable eruption will take place.

Bill Weather (Qwakeup.com): On 2/9/14, I dreamt I was in the woods and a large size herd of deer came trampling thru the woods. I stopped to watch the stream of deer go by and near the end of the stream of deer, was a huge black horse. This horse was about 3 times the size of a normal horse size and the horse came up to me. I was a bit fearful of the horse because of its large size, but it was not angry at me or hostile, so I petted the horse gently. Then the scene switched and some people whose house I was watching came back and all these sheriffs and authorities came into the house/office and opened up their safe, emptied it of gold and paper assets and were falsely accusing me of not being trustworthy to be around their riches, so they emptied their safe of assets and commanded me that while they were gone, to paint the house, but they had no intent of returning. I had become a prisoner to them inside the house. It was cold and I complained of needing heat, but also heat for the paint to dry properly. They finally agreed and I got my wish for heat for the house. Interpretation: The herd of deer running wildly are the troubles to come that are going to stir great unrest, like the deer running fearfully in the herd I saw. These deer were stirred up by trouble coming and so, in the same way, the souls of those without Christ are going to be on the run. The big black horse is death coming to this land. Death will be huge in this land and the great blackness of darkness is coming. The horse, when I saw him, was huge and bit frightful to me, but the horse was friendly towards me. Those holy living in Christ have no reason to fear the big black horse. Death has no power over us and we should not fear it. The house I was watching was America and her authorities were fearful of death taking their riches. This is their fear of the word of the Lord to them because they trust in the riches of this life, are living a life of sin and selfishness and are fearful for their lives. They do not trust me because I was with the black horse and have the message of death coming to this land, because America has not repented. They falsely accuse in the times of great trouble as a scapegoat to preserve their false security and the illusions in which they live under, based on their perishing earthly riches. They are as animals, on the run and senseless to the riches above. My becoming a prisoner inside their house is a warning from the Lord that because of the huge death events coming to this land, martial law and a police state will arise and some people will become prisoners of the police state. They will become a prisoner inside the house (America) and will not be able to escape the country. The Sheriff wanting me to paint the house is a whitewash. The authorities will try to paint calmness in the time of great turmoil, but will fake it and move their riches out of the house (off shore). They will not even want to pay for heat so the paint would properly dry, but only whitewash it with paint; they will give (the heat) to do just enough to keep some calm so they can escape with their riches. In the dream, they had no intent of returning to the house. They knew greater destruction was coming and ran away with their riches.

Ezekiel 14:13 Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:
14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.
15 If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts:
16 Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.
17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:
18 Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.
19 Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:
20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.

DS: Ezekiel is plain enough. It is time to seek the Lord while He may be found, and it may be that He will show mercy to keep us alive through what is coming. If you are in the Lord, when you meet the black horse, you have less to fear.

Silver OI rose by 1598 contracts from 148,436 up to 150,034 even though silver was down by 37 cents yesterday. Short covering again by the banks was no doubt in full force yesterday. The big December active contract month is now off the board.

In Gold:

Quote:

The total gold Comex open interest fell today by 5,120 contracts from 374,018 all the way down to 368,899 with gold down by $13.60 yesterday (at the Comex close). We are moving off the big December contract month. The non active January contract month fell by 43 contracts down to 402. The next big delivery month is February and here the OI fell dramatically to 216,738 contracts for a loss of 5,402 contracts.

Volume

In Silver:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was simply awful at 16,100. The confirmed volume yesterday was just as bad at 28,261. We had 39 notices filed for 195,000 oz today.

In Gold:

Quote:

The estimated volume today was poor at 85,504. The confirmed volume yesterday was also poor at 93,265 even although they had some help from our high frequency traders. The Comex now has no credibility and many investors have vanished from this crooked casino. Today we had 270 notices filed for 27000 oz .

We had 0 adjustments
Total dealer inventory: 64.604 million oz
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 175.471 million oz.

In Gold Inventory:

Quote:

Today, we had 0 dealer transactions.
Total dealer withdrawal: nil oz

We had 0 dealer deposits:
Total dealer deposit: nil oz

We had 0 customer withdrawals.
Total customer withdrawal: nil

We had 0 customer deposits:
Total customer deposits; nil oz

We had 0 adjustments

Delivery Notices

In Silver:

Quote:

The total number of notices filed today is represented by 39 contracts for 195,000 oz.

In Gold:

Quote:

Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 139 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 270 contracts of which 265 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account.

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in December, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (2975) x 5,000 oz = the total number of silver oz standing so far in November.
Thus: 2975 contracts x 5000 oz = 14,875,000 oz of silver that will stand for delivery in December.
We gained 95,000 silver ounces that will stand for the December silver contract.

In Gold:

Quote:

To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the December contract month, we take the total number of notices filed for the month (3381) x 100 oz = 338,100 the amount of gold oz standing for the December contract month.
Thus the final standings:
3381 (notices filed for the month x 100 oz) equals 338,100 oz or 10.51 tonnes.
We neither gained nor lost any gold ounces standing for the December contract month.
Total dealer inventory: 770,987.09 oz or 23.98 tonnes.
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7.895 million oz. (245.58) tonnes)
Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 57 tonnes have been net transferred out. We will be watching this closely!
This finalizes the month of December for gold.

**************

Select Commodity Prices

The Bloomberg Baltic Dry Index (BDI) was 782.00, down 0.76%. WTI February crude was 53.76 up 0.13. Brent crude was 57.90 up 0.02. The spread between Brent and WTI was 4.14 down 0.11. The 30 year US Treasury bond was down 0.0200 at 2.7600. The 10 year T-Note was down 0.0200 at 2.1900. The dollar was down 0.27 at 89.94. The PPT/Dow was 17983.07 down 55.16. Silver closed at 16.27 up 0.46. The GSR was 73.7554 down 1.0454 oz of silver per oz of gold. CIA's Facebook was 79.22 down 0.80 (1.00%). March wheat was down 13.50 at 602.000. March corn was down 6.25 at 406.50. February lean hogs were down 0.625 at 81.175. March feeder cattle were up 0.575 at 216.250. March copper was up 0.032 at 2.854. February natural gas was down 0.105 at 3.094. March coal was up 0.85 at 50.08.

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